Considering the firing deaths in the fourth phase of Assembly elections in Bengal last Saturday the Election Commission of India have made massive arrangements for the fifth phase which would be held on Saturday.
More than a crore voters of 45 Assembly constituencies would exercise their franchise deciding the fate of 342 candidates on when 45 seats would go to polls in the fifth phase.
According to sources the ECI would deploy about 853 companies of central forces to ensure free and fair voting. Voting will be held at 15,789 polling stations in 16 seats in North 24 Parganas, eight each in Bardhaman East and Nadia, seven in Jalpaiguri, five in Darjeeling and one in Kalimpong district.
Amongst the prominent names who are contesting in the fifth phase are former Bengal Minister and Siliguri Mayor Ashok Bhattacharya of the CPI(M), State Ministers Gautam Deb (Dabgram) and Bratya Basu (Dum Dum) and BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya. The Left-Congress alliance had won 10 seats out of the 45 seats in 2016 Assembly elections.