Polling for the first phase in 30 seats in West Bengal and 47 seats in Assam began at 7 am on Saturday. Elections are being held in eight phases in West Bengal and three phases in Assam.
In Bengal, 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.
#AssamAssemblyPolls | A long queue of voters outside a polling station in Bakul, Dibrugarh pic.twitter.com/3biSjNg2vW
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The Election Commission (EC) has made adequate arrangements and taken precautionary measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first phase of elections in high-stakes poll battle in West Bengal is being held on with both the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking to outdo each other in poll promises and campaign rhetoric.
While the BJP is striving to form its first government in the state, the Left-ISF-Congress alliance is also striving to spring a surprise.
In Assam, the Congress is fighting 43 of 47 seats going to the polls in the first phase.
A total of 264 candidates are in the fray from 47 seats. In 2016, the BJP and its ally AGP had won 35 of these seats. The BJP alone had bagged 27 seats. Congress could manage to win only 9 seats despite securing nearly the same vote percentage.