Campaign ends for fourth phase of elections in Bengal

Campaigning ended on Saturday in eight parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal that will vote in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 29.

Canvassing reached a peak over the past couple of days including big rallies, road shows, street corner meetings and last minute door-to-door contact with voters in Baharampur, Ranaghat, Krishnanagar, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum, before coming to an end at 6 p.m. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Tripura counterpart Biplab Deb and CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury were among the star campaigners.

An electorate of around 13,428,693 will decide the fate of 68 candidates in the eight seats. 

Union Minister-cum-singer Babul Supriyo (BJP), yesteryear's actresses Moon Moon Sen and Satabdi Roy (both Trinamool) and former Union Minister and Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury are among the star candidates in this phase.

The Asansol seat is grabbing lot of attention with Supriyo facing a challenge from Bankura's sitting Trinamool MP Sen, who has been shifted her old seat to give the BJP candidate a run for the money.

According to an analysis done by the West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, out of 68 candidates across parties contesting from the eight West Bengal seats in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 22 have assets worth over Rs 1 crore and 14 have declared criminal cases against them.

In 2014, Congress had won the Baharampur seat, the Asansol seat went to the BJP and all the rest - Krishnagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Birbhum and Bolpur - were bagged by the Trinamool. IANS