Fate of 79 Bengal Candidates to Be Sealed in 6TH Phase of LS Polls

The fate of 79 candidates will be sealed on Saturday in the sixth phase of elections for eight Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal.

The eight Lok Sabha constituencies are Bankura and Bishnupur in Bankura district, Purulia in Purulia district, Kanthi and Tamluk in East Midnapore district, Medinipur and Ghatal in West Midnapore district and Jhargram in Jhargram district.

The prominent candidates whose fate will be sealed include former judge of Calcutta High Court and BJP candidate from Tamluk Abhijit Gangopadhyay, two celebrity candidates from Ghatal namely Deepak Adhikari a.k.a. Dev of Trinamool Congress and Hiran Chatterjee of BJP, actress-turned-politician June Malia who is the ruling party candidate from Medinipur and her opponent from the BJP camp Agnimitra Paul, a fashion designer-turned--turned-politician.

Of the 79 candidates whose fates will be sealed on Saturday, the maximum is from Bankura and Jhargram with both at 13, followed by Purulia at 12, Medinipur, Kanthi and Tamluk at nine each and finally Ghatal and Bishnupur at seven each.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidates got elected from five constituencies namely Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia, Medinipur and Jhargram, while Trinamool Congress got elected from the remaining three -- Kanthi, Tamluk and Ghatal.

This time BJP is confident of snatching Kanthi and Tamluk, virtually the forts of the family of the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, from Trinamool Congress besides retaining the three they had won in 2019.

A total of 1,020 companies of CAPF will be there in West Bengal for the sixth phase, which is 56 per cent higher than the figure of 650 companies deployed for seven constituencies in the state that went to the polls in the fifth phase on May 20.

Out of 1,020 companies, 919 will be deployed at the polling booths. Of the remaining 101 companies, the majority will be deployed as part of the quick response teams and a small portion will be kept on reserve.

These CAPF companies will be assisted by 29,468 personnel from the state police forces.