37 in fray for three seats in 1st phase, Cooch Behar gets maximum security

Kolkata : The fate of as many as 37 candidates, including that of a Union Minister, will be sealed on Friday in the first phase of elections in three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal.

Of the three constituencies, Cooch Behar will be under special focus not only because the Union Minister is seeking re-election from there but also because of the sensitivity of the constituency as regards records of poll-related violence.

BJP has sitting MPs from all the three Lok Sabha constituencies -- Cooch Behar Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar.

At Cooch Behar, BJP has re-nominated Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik. His closest contestants are Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia of Trinamool Congress, who is also a sitting party legislator and All India Forward Bloc’s Nitish Chandra Roy.

The constituency will have 112 companies, the maximum deployment, of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) on Friday.

At Jalpaiguri, BJP has re-nominated its sitting Lok Sabha member Jayanta Kumar Roy, who is pitted against Trinamool Congress’s sitting MLA Nirmal Chandra Roy and CPI(M)’s youth leader Debraj Barman. Jalpaiguri will have the deployment of 75 companies of CAPF.

At Alipurduar, BJP replaced its sitting Lok Sabha member with Manoj Tigga, who besides being a sitting party MLA is also the chief whip of BJP’s legislative party in West Bengal Assembly. Trinamool Congress has fielded its sitting Rajya Sabha member Parkash Chik Baraik. Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)’s Mili Oraon is also in the poll fray. A total of 63 companies of CAPF have been deployed at Alipurduar for Friday.

Besides 250 companies of CAPF, a total of 10,000 personnel which includes those from state armed police forces, have also been deployed by the Election Commission (ECI) for these three Lok Sabha constituencies.

As per the records of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, the total number of polling booths in the three Lok Sabha constituencies combined is 5,814, out of which 1,862 have been earmarked as sensitive booths.

The polling will start at 7am and continue till 6pm.