28.4.11

Kolkata turns out in force





The campaign cacophony of the third phase of polls, most crucial to government formation in West Bengal, quietened into the silence of a bandh day in Kolkata and its suburbs on Wednesday as voters lined up in thousands to decide the fate of heavyweights like CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool’s Manish Gupta, a former chief secretary, and Amit Mitra, who headed FICCI. The average polling in Kolkata was 63% at 5 pm. Election officials expected that the turnout would go up in the final count, much higher than the 62% in the last assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Polling stood at 80% in the evening in North 24-Parganas, and 82% in South 24-Parganas, higher than the polling average (78%) in the three districts. Fearing violence, bandobast was tight. There were armed paramilitary jawans guiding voters to the booths. Outside the booths, most shops downed the shutters and the city roads were deserted. Party managers in the war rooms were trying to interpret the quiet turnout. While Mamata Banerjee would like to see this seriousness as indicative of change in government, CPM mandarins were reading it as a sign of a lastminute change of mood.

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