West Bengal Assembly Bypolls: CM Mamata Banerjee Casts Her Vote

Bhabanipur Assembly Bye-Election 2021 Polling live updates: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is contesting the bypoll from Bhabanipur Assembly constituency to retain her chair, Thursday cast her vote at Mitra Institution School around 3 pm.

The voter turnout at the Bhabanipur constituency stood at 48.08 per cent at 3 pm on Thursday. The figure has stayed on the lower side all throughout the day, standing at 35.97 per cent at 1 pm, 21.73 per cent at 11 am and 7.57 per cent at 9 am.

Polling began at 7 am on Thursday for the bypolls to the Bhabanipur seat and two other constituencies amid tight security and stringent Covid-19 measures. To ensure watertight security and peaceful polling in Bhabanipur on Thursday, the Election Commission on Wednesday decided to bring in 20 more companies of Central Armed Police Personnel.

The constituency, which has twice elected Mamata and is considered her home, has pitted the Trinamool Congress supremo against two young faces — BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal and the CPM’s Srijib Biswas. However, the polling, this time, assumes special significance as Banerjee is fighting to continue as the state CM, while the BJP is eyeing an encore of Nandigram where the Trinamool chief contested and lost to Suvendu Adhikari in the Assembly polls held earlier this year.

The bypolls are being held in south Kolkata’s Bhabanipur, and Jangipur and Samserganj seats in Murshidabad district. A total 6,97,164 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the three constituencies. Votes will be counted on October 3. The Pipili seat in Puri, Odisha, also goes to the polls today.

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