A voter turnout of 77.57 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in the three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal where elections were underway in the first phase on Friday, officials said.
Polling started at 7 am in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar seats, where a total of 56.26 lakh people are eligible to vote.
"Till 1 pm, the voter turnout in Coochbehar was 50.69 per cent, while that in Jalpaiguri was 50.65 per cent, and in Alipurduar was 51.58 per cent," an election official said. All three seats are reserved, with Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri for SCs and Alipurduar for STs.
A total of 37 candidates are in the fray in the three constituencies where voting will continue till 6 pm. Trinamool Congress supporters were accused of stone pelting in Chandamari, leading to a BJP booth president suffering an injury, BJP workers were accused of attacking TMC workers in the Sitalkuchi and Chotosalbari Gram Panchayat areas. During the first hour of voting, bombs were allegedly recovered from the residence of a BJP booth president in Dinhata -II and a TMC polling camp in Sitai was attacked.
Constituency details
Cooch Behar, historically a Left bastion, saw BJP's victory in 2019 and all seven Assembly segments in 2021. The BJP's Nishith Pramanik faces Trinamool's Jagadish Chandra Burma Basunia this time. In the last Lok Sabha polls, Pramanik won by over 50,000 votes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee campaigned here on April 4, focusing on wooing the Rajbanshis, who make up about 40 percent of the voters.
Alipurduar, senior BJP leader Manoj Tigga faces Trinamool Congress's Prakash Chik Baraik. With seven BJP MLAs in all seven constituencies, BJP holds an advantage in this reserved seat. The Left Front has nominated Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Mili Oraon as its candidate.
Jalpaiguri Incumbent BJP MP Jayanta Kumar Roy is up against Trinamool's Nirmal Chandra Roy and CPI-M's Debraj Barman. In 2019, north Bengal saw BJP's stronghold, leading in six assembly segments except Rajganj. The Left Front has nominated Debraj Barman for this triangular contest.