Campaigning ends for 2nd phase of polling in three Bengal LS seats

Kolkata, Apr 24 (PTI) Campaigning for three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat going to polls in the second phase on April 26 came to an end at 6 PM on Wednesday.

    A total of 51,17,955 voters - 26,07,389 men, 25,10,356 women and 210 third-gender - are eligible to exercise their franchise in 5,298 polling stations.
    Out of the 47 candidates contesting the election in this phase, three are women.
    The second phase of polls would be witnessing a contest between political heavyweights in Balurghat, as the BJP's West Bengal president and sitting MP Sukanta Majumdar would take on state minister Biplab Mitra.
    There are a total of 13 candidates contesting from the Balurghat constituency.
    Altogether 14 candidates, including sitting MP Raju Bista, are contesting from the Darjeeling seat. The TMC has fielded former bureaucrat Gopal Lama while the Congress nominated Munish Tamang.
    Interestingly, protesting against Bista's nomination, BJP MLA from Kurseong, Bishnu Pada Sharma, is also contesting from the Darjeeling seat as an independent candidate.
    There are 20 candidates including TMC's Krishna Kalyani, Ali Imran Ramz aka Victor for the Congress and Kartick Chandra Paul for the BJP.
    Heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee were seen campaigning for their respective party candidates.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)