Assam, West Bengal election 2021 live updates: Bengal, Assam witness high turnout as Phase 1 voting concludes

As polling for the first phase of assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam began on Saturday morning, Union home minister Amit Shah urged citizens to vote fearlessly for the development of the states. On the West Bengal elections, Shah tweeted: "I appeal to voters of the first phase to vote in record numbers fearlessly to restore the pride of Bengal." "Your one vote will create Bengal as imagined by great men like Subhash Chandra Bose, Gurudev Tagore and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee," he added.

Polling for the first of the eight-phase assembly polls in West Bengal began at 7 am on Saturday with voters deciding the fate of 191 candidates in 30 constituencies. All constituencies in Purulia, Jhargram and segments of Bankura, Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur are going to decide the electoral fate of 191 candidates, including 21 women candidates in the fray. The polling will end at 6.30 pm. In the first phase, a total of 73,80,942 electorates will cast their votes including 7,52,938 male voters, 36,27,949 female voters, 55 of the third gender and 11,767 service electors.

As the first phase of assembly polls in Assam began on Saturday, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has urged voters to turn out in record numbers and exercise their right to vote for the progress and development of the state. "Today is a glorious day when you get an opportunity to exercise your democratic right of casting your vote. Please do go out in large numbers. Your vote will ensure the progress, development and prosperity of Assam," Sarma tweeted. Polling is underway in the forty-seven constituencies spread across 12 districts in the first phase, in which 264 candidates are in the fray. The polling began at 7 am today and will continue till 6 pm. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's constituency Majuli is also going to polls in the first phase.

Voting began at 7 am on Saturday for 47 seats in the first phase of the assembly elections in Assam to decide the fate of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, and a host of ministers and opposition leaders, officials said. Altogether 264 candidates, including 23 women, are in the fray in the first phase, they said. A total of 300 companies of security forces have been deployed in the first phase, in which people are voting at 11,537 polling stations across 12 districts of Upper Assam and the Northern Bank of Brahmaputra. Patrolling has been intensified and strict vigil is being kept in all the vulnerable areas, officials said.

Saffron party aims to build on deep 2019 inroads as identity politics takes centrestage in state while Mamata counters with sops. Bengal votes in the first phase on Saturday of an assembly election that will not only be its longest but also one of its fiercest with identity politics entering the state’s political narrative like never before. Yes, there is the promise of development, industry and jobs and carpet-bombing publicity of welfare schemes – like PM Kisan and Swasthya Sathi – but it’s around religion, caste, language and the ‘Bengali vs outsider’ themes that the defining battle lines of this marathon eight-phase contest between chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Modi-Shahled BJP have been drawn.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged voters to turn out in record numbers and exercise their right to vote as polling for the first phase of assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam began on Saturday morning. "Today, Phase 1 of the West Bengal Assembly elections begin. I would request all those who are voters in the seats polling today to exercise their franchise in record numbers," Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet.