Kolkata, June 19 (IANS) With weather conditions improving during the last couple of hours, the percentage of polling for the bypolls to the Kaliganj Assembly constituency in the Nadia district of West Bengal shot up substantially to 30.64 till 11 a.m. on Thursday.

“Because of the continuous rainfall in the first two and a half hours since the polling started at 7 a.m., the polling percentage was significantly low at just 10.83. However, during the last couple of hours, weather conditions improved and rainfall receded, following which the voters started queuing up in front of the polling booth, shooting up the polling percentage to 30.64 till 11 a.m.” confirmed an official from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

Barring complaints of some stray events, the polling process has been more or less peaceful as of now, as the election-related officials, accompanied by Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel, carried out their strict monitoring of the polling process.

Any complaint received by the office of the CEO was addressed immediately by the team of election officials deputed nearby.

At booth number 56, located at Chandghar Adarsha Vidyapith, a war of words broke out between the polling agents of the BJP and the presiding officer.

The BJP’s polling agent accused the presiding officer of playing a partial role and tried to prevent him from occupying the chair specified for him within the polling booth.

Later, the BJP candidate, Ashish Ghosh, expressed satisfaction over the arrangement made. “Like every election, initially, the Trinamool Congress-backed goons tried to create problems at places. However, they were not successful because of the immediate action by the polling official and CAPF personnel. If this ambience of free and fair polls continues throughout the end and if voter turnout increases further, there is no reason for Trinamool Congress to face a disaster in this bypoll,” Ghosh said.

Kaliganj is one of the five Assembly constituencies in four Indian states where bypolls are being held on Thursday. The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of its erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year at the age of 70.

The counting will be on June 23.

–IANS

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