WB: Campaign for 3rd phase ends

Campaigning for the third phase of assembly elections in West Bengal [ Images ], which reached a crescendo in the last two days with political heavyweights turning out to canvass support, ended on Tuesday evening.

Altogether 77 constituencies in Kolkata [ Images ] and adjoining North and South 24 Parganas districts would go to polls in the third phase on Thursday to decide the fate of a number of political bigwigs, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee [ Images ].

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Unlike the first two phases, the campaign, which had inititally remained low-key, reached a peak with a number of top leaders, including former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani [ Images ] and Congress President Sonia Gandhi [ Images ], addressing meetings in the last few days.

Other high-profile campaigners included Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP President Rajnath Singh, CPI-M [ Images ] General Secretary Prakash Karat [ Images ], Railway minister Lalu Prasad, and Steel minister Ramvilas Paswan [ Images ].

Political parties also requisitioned the service of cine actress Jaya Bacchan, Smriti Irani [ Images ] and former cricketer Navjyot Singh Sidhu seeking to win over voters. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee led the Left Front campaign while Trinamool Congress [ Images ] supremo Mamata Banerjee [ Images ] was the star campaigner for her party. CPI-M veteran Jyoti Basu, even at the age of 92, also campaigned for party candidates.