The campaign for the second phase Assembly election in West Bengal came to an end at 5 pm Thursday with political parties making a last minute bid to woo voters.
Altogether 66 constituencies in four districts -- East Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia -- will go to the polls in the second phase on April 22 when 1.13 crore electorate will decide the fate of 348 contestants including 28 women, state's Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen said.
After his hectic tour, along with the Deputy Election Commissioner R Balakrishnan, to a number of south Bengal districts to monitor poll-preparedness, Sen said the commission had deployed 132 observers for the four districts, besides one expense observer each for sub-divisions.
One observer each would man the four district control rooms during the day of election on April 22, he said.
Sen said that central force would start a flag march for second phase poll from Thursday night and they would report to the election authority if people had any complaint in any area.
The 66 Assembly constituencies comprise 16 seats in East Midnapore, 19 seats in Hooghly, 16 in Howrah and the remaining 15 in Nadia districts.
The second phase will have altogether 12,299 polling stations, while 14,938 EVMs will be used in this phase.
Altogether 3.52 lakh names were struck off the electoral rolls in these four districts, while 72,263 names were added in the rolls after the revision.
With Election Commission imposing various restrictions including ban on poll graffiti and hoardings, the campaign in this phase looked a little better compared to the first phase campaign, which all along remained low-key.
Political parties were allowed to use loudspeakers only after April 13 after the completion of the HSC examination.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee were the star campaigners for their respective fronts.
While the chief minister was confident of the return of the Left Front government for the seventh consecutive term, Banerjee, on the other hand, harped on the 'failures' of the LF government in its 29-year-rule and called for a change.
The ministers contesting the election in the second phase include Prabodh Sinha from Egra, Kiranmoy Nanda from Mugberia in East Midnapore district, Naren Dey from Chinsurah in Hooghly district and Pratyush Mukhejee from Amta in Howrah district.
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