The campaign for the second and final phase of the state assembly elections of West Bengal ended this evening. With that, the silence period has begun. In this phase, voting will take place on Wednesday, 29th April, across 142 constituencies in 7 districts. A total of 3 crore 21 lakh 73 thousand and 837 voters will exercise their franchise in this round. Among them, 1 crore 57 lakhs 37 thousand 418 are women, 1 crore 64 lakhs 35 thousand 627 are male voters, and 792 are from the third gender.

 

However, as per Supreme Court directives, the Appellate Tribunal is expected to publish a revised list today after considering applications from voters excluded during SIR adjudication, which may marginally change these numbers. In this phase, 1,448 candidates are in the fray, including 220 women. The largest constituency by area is Kalyani, while the smallest is Jorasanko.

 

Meanwhile, Chinsurah in Hooghly district has the highest number of voters: 275,715. The lowest number of voters is in Bhatpara of North 24 Parganas, with 117,195. A total of 2,321 companies of the central forces are being deployed for this phase. Additionally, there will be 142 general observers, 95 police observers, and 100 expenditure observers.

 

Altogether, 41,001 polling stations will be set up, including 39,301 main and 1,700 auxiliary stations. Of these, 14,218 are in urban areas, and 25,083 are in rural areas. There will be 8,845 women-managed polling stations and 298 model polling stations. Specially-abled individuals will manage 13 polling stations. On the last day of campaigning today, leaders from various political parties held meetings, rallies, and public gatherings in an effort to win over voters.