Soon after voting began at 7 am on Wednesday for the second phase of West Bengal elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left her home in Kalighat and headed towards a polling booth in Chetla.
This is unlike previous elections, where Banerjee would leave her house only in the second half of the day. The chief minister visited Kolkata Mayor and Kolkata Port candidate Firhad Hakim’s house to take stock of the polling situation.
She also visited several other polling booths in her Bhabanipur assembly constituency where voting is underway.
Banerjee alleged that the posters of her party, the Trinamool Congress, were being torn in several areas. She also claimed that the TMC polling agents were being beaten up by central forces, citing an incident on Wednesday night in Bhangar in the South 24 Parganas district.
“The intention is very clear. BJP wants to forcefully rig elections. Our workers and people are ready to die, but they will not give up," Banerjee said.
#WATCH | Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC candidate from Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, Mamata Banerjee, says, "Look how our worker was beaten up at night. Just look at this atrocity. What kind of hooliganism is going on? Voting does not happen like this. Voting… pic.twitter.com/yY3TGSz4az
— ANI (@ANI) April 29, 2026
“As the chairman of All India Trinamool Congress, I want elections to take place peacefully. The common man has been given their democratic rights," she said, adding that the Election Commission has brought special observers and police officers from other places who don’t understand Bengal.
The TMC supremo further claimed that her party was being targeted and said she stayed awake all night monitoring the situation.
Banerjee is expected to cast her vote in the evening at Mitra Institution in Bhabanipur. Her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee cast his vote around 8:30 am at the same polling booth.
“People should go out with their heads held high and cast their vote," said Abhishek. “You will see when the results are out, Trinamool Congress will get a huge mandate," he claimed, adding that the BJP will be reduced to 50 seats.
The focal point of the second phase of polling is Bhabanipur, where BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari is contesting against Banerjee. After defeating the chief minister in the 2021 Assembly elections from Nandigram, Adhikari is looking to repeat the same in Bhabanipur this time. It is also the first time Adhikari is contesting from an urban constituency, that too, a forte of Banerjee.
In Kolkata, eleven urban assembly seats are held by the TMC, and the party is confident of retaining all of them.
Adhikari also contested from his incumbent seat, Nandigram, in the first phase of elections on April 23. The BJP leader was seen visiting various constituencies on Wednesday morning.
“Unlike other elections, this time, there is tight security ensured by the Election Commission,” said Adhikari.
Voting is underway in seven districts, with 18.39 per cent polling reported till 9 am. EVM malfunction was reported from some booths, but they were fixed within an hour, and voting resumed.
As many as 2,343 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have been deployed across all 142 constituencies, with Kolkata alone receiving 273 CAPF companies.
The Election Commission is hoping for a violence-free polling in the second phase, keeping in mind the lessons learnt in the first phase.
With the first phase witnessing a record 92.7 per cent polling, a similar higher turnout is expected in the second phase, too.
