Cooch Behar, Alipurduar to cast votes on Thursday in the first phase

KOLKATA: Cooch Behar and Alipurduar will be the two constituencies in West Bengal to go to the polls in the first phase of elections to the Lok Sabha on Thursday.



The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the BJP are the main contenders in the two north Bengal seats, while the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress would fight to prove their existence.

Left Party constituent Forward Bloc will contest from Cooch Behar and RSP in Alipurduar.

Issues ranging from corruption to communalism, the NRC to chitfund scams, development to security and tea garden issues featured in the election speeches of the warring party leaders.

Cooch Behar district has the distinction of housing 51 enclaves which became part of India in 2015 after the exchange with Bangladesh. The enclaves have 15,000 dwellers.

With the seat located on the Indo-Bangla border, infiltration, livelihood for the enclave dwellers and employment for the youth are the main poll issues.

Alipurduar is reserved constituency for scheduled tribes as it has a large population of adivasis who migrated to the region during the British era to work in tea gardens. There is also a sizeable chunk of Nepalis and Rajbangshi tribals.

The poor condition of tea garden workers, specially since the closure of several tea gardens since the 1990s, will play a major role this election.

The two constituencies witnessed high-pitched campaign which was mainly polarised between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

In Alipurduar, the TMC has nominated Dasarath Tirkey against John Barla of BJP. The Congress and the RSP candidates are Mohanlal Basumata and Mili Oraon respectively.

The TMC has fielded Paresh Adhikari against the BJP's Nisith Pramanik in Cooch Behar, where Piya Roy Chowdhury of the Congress and Gobinda Roy of Forward Bloc are also in the fray.

A total of 18,09,598 electorate will decide the fate of 11 contestants in Cooch Behar, while 16,42,285 voters will choose from seven in Alipurduar.

The Election Commission has made an elaborate security arrangement with the deployment of 83 companies of central force, besides an adequate number of state forces, to ensure a free, fair and peaceful poll.

Polling personnel have already left for 2010 polling stations in Cooch Behar seat and 1834 polling stations in Alipurduar seat.

Besides general election observers and expenditure observers, the poll panel for the first time deployed a special police observer.

In another first, VVPAT will be used in all polling booths along with the EVMs

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