KOLKATA, April 21: The high-pitched campaign for the first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections came to an end on Tuesday as issues ranging from food habits, cross-border infiltration and a uniform civil code to the contentiously revised electoral rolls dominated the discourse.
The two big rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), made a bunch of promises to woo the electorate ahead of voting in 152 constituencies across north Bengal and several districts in the southern part of the state on April 23. Nearly 3.60 crore electors are eligible to vote in this phase, including 1.84 crore men, 1.75 crore women and 465 third-gender voters, according to Election Commission data.
Canvassing for the BJP candidates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders alleged that the state has witnessed political violence, lawlessness and widespread corruption as, they claimed, the ruling TMC encouraged infiltration for vote bank politics, leading to demographic change.
The Election Commission has deployed central forces in sufficient numbers who are spread at every nook and corner of the state.” Around 2,450 companies of central paramilitary forces that comprise nearly 2.5 lakh personnel have been deployed by the Election Commission for the polls. The poll panel has stepped up security arrangements, identifying more than 8,000 polling stations as highly sensitive for the first phase.
The TMC is seeking to come to power for the fourth straight term, while the BJP wants to unseat the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the state where the number of voters has reduced by around 91 lakh after the Special Intensive Review (SIR).
The BJP has promised, among others, to implement the Uniform Civil Code, stop infiltration, strengthen borders, generate jobs, provide pending DA to state government employees, and give more financial assistance to beneficiaries than what they are getting now.
The TMC has accused the BJP of trying to manipulate the voter list through the SIR, targeting candidates and ruling party leaders using central agencies. It also claimed that the BJP would ban the consumption of fish, meat and eggs if it won the polls, a charge vehemently denied by the latter.
The ruling party also pledged a pucca house to every family, piped drinking water for all, increased financial assistance to beneficiaries, support to landless farmers, and others.
Among other issues, the decades-old demand of the Gorkhas for Gorkhaland, tea garden workers’ wages, infrastructure gaps in north Bengal and agrarian distress in Malda and Murshidabad have shaped the campaign narrative.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi also campaigned for party candidates; the party is seen as a marginal player in the state though. (PTI)
