By IANS,
Kolkata : Eighty-two percent of the electorate cast their votes in Thursday’s by-poll to West Bengal’s Bishnupur (West) assembly seat, officials said.
They said there were no untoward incidents and polling in in the constituency in South 24 Parganas district passed off peacefully. The votes will be counted March 1.
Trinamool Congress nominee Madan Mitra is pitted against Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate Iskandar Hussain. The Congress had withdrawn its candidate in favour of Mitra.
The election has assumed importance as it would be the last trial of strength between West Bengal’s ruling communists and the opposition before the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
The death of CPI-M’s Rathin Sarkar, who won the seat in 2006, had necessitated the by-election.