High turnout in last phase WB state polls

The staggered six-phase polling to elect a new legislature in West Bengal of India ended yesterday with an estimated turnout of over 75 percent in what promises to be a close contest between ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and combined opposition alliance of Congress party and the Left.  

The sixth and final phase of polling yesterday saw first-time voters from erstwhile adversely-held Indian enclaves in Bangladesh exercising their franchise amidst scenes of celebrations.

Among them was 103-year-old Asgar Ali who came along with family members of three generations to cast ballots for the first time.

Mamata is confident her party will get the required number of seats in the 294-member state assembly for a second successive term in power. All she needs is 148 legislators to reach the simple majority mark in one of the most intriguing electoral battles West Bengal has witnessed so far.

If the vote share in the previous assembly elections five years ago and the national parliament polls two years is anything to go by, Trinamool Congress has reasons to be worried from the Congress-Left alliance this time.

In the year 2011, Trinamool secured 39.08 per cent of the total votes as against Congress'8.91 percent and the Left's 41.05 per. In 2014 parliamentary polls, the Left's vote share came down but they along with Congress still managed to hold on to 39.30 per of votes.

Analysts said that when the polling in the present round of assembly elections began on April 4, Trinamool clearly had an edge to retain power but in the fourth and fifth phase of polling in late April, the Left-Congress appeared to have staged a recovery.

Under the circumstances, the outcome of polling in the 25 assembly seats yesterday in the last phase could have a great bearing on the final result.