By IANS,
Kolkata : After rising to a crescendo over the past couple of days, campaigning ended Monday in 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal that go to the polls in the final phase Wednesday.
The fate of 100 candidates, including Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and eight other women will be decided by 13.8 million electors across 17,136 polling booths spread over three southern Bengal districts, including this state capital.
A total of 68,000 personnel would conduct the polls.
There was feverish campaigning in Kolkata, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts over the last few days as the political parties took out colourful processions, organised street corner meetings and staged election rallies.
The campaigning came to an end at 5 p.m. as per Election Commission rules.
To ensure free and fair elections, 250 companies of central police forces and another 200 companies of state armed police personnel have been deployed, state chief electoral officer Debasish Sen said.
Kolkata North and Kolkata South have the highest number of candidates – 13 each.