Kolkata, April 29 (IANS) The polling percentage in the first eight hours till 3 p.m. on Wednesday in the second phase of West Bengal Assembly elections for 142 constituencies has been recorded at 78.68.

This is marginally lower than the 78.77 per cent recorded in the first six hours of April 23 voting in the first phase in 152 Assembly constituencies.

With a few hours of polling left till 6 p.m., the Election Commission of India (ECI) is confident that the polling percentage in the second phase will be around 93 per cent, as recorded in the first phase.

“The common factor in both the phases of polling on April 23 and on Wednesday has been that the high polling percentage has been almost uniform throughout the day. Generally, as seen in the last few elections, the polling percentage remains low between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and then picks up again. However, this time in both the phases, high polling percentage has continued even during that lull period,” an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal said.

In district-wise voting, till 1 p.m., East Burdwan district recorded the highest polling percentage at 83.11, followed by Hooghly district at 80.77, Nadia at 79.79, the electoral district of Kolkata (Uttar) at 78.00, Howrah at 77.73, North 24 Parganas at 77.39, South 24 Parganas at 76.75, and the electoral district of Kolkata (Dakshin) at 75.38.

Incidentally, this polling percentage is substantially higher than the average percentage of 58.5 recorded in the same period in the seven-phase 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

As per the statistics provided by the CEO’s office, till 3 p.m., the highest polling percentage has been recorded in the Galsi Assembly constituency in East Burdwan district at 85.11. The lowest polling percentage has been recorded at Maheshtala in the South 24 Parganas district at 70.1.

In the high-profile Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in South Kolkata, where the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, is pitted against the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, the polling percentage till 3 p.m. has been recorded at 75.66.

Adhikari had already claimed that his victory in Bhabanipur will be confirmed in case the polling percentage crosses the 80 mark, and his margin will be higher if the percentage reaches 90.

–IANS

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