Home India Politics 975 candidates in fray so far for Bengal polls

975 candidates in fray so far for Bengal polls

By IANS,

Kolkata : As many as 975 candidates have so far filed their nominations for the six-phase assembly polls in West Bengal, a top Election Commission (EC) official said Friday.

After the scrutiny of papers, 364 candidates are in contest for the first phase of polls April 18 in 54 assembly constituencies spread over six districts in the north, according to Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kumar Gupta.

Gupta added that 300 candidates each have filed their nominations so far for the second and third phases April 23 and 27 respectively and 11 for the May 3 fourth phase.

The nomination process for the last two phases May 7 and 10 is yet to start.

According to the official, 205 independent candidates have filed papers so far, followed by 154 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 126 from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), 119 of the Trinamool Congress, 98 from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 51 from the Congress and 22 from the All India forward Bloc (AIFB) among others.

Gupta added that all steps have been taken to ensure the smooth operation of the electronic voting machines and 20 percent extra machines will be kept at the distribution centres to be used in case of any contingency.