Kolkata: In order to ensure absolutely free and fair elections in the April 12 bypolls for West Bengal’s Asansol Lok Sabha constituency and Ballygunge Assembly constituency, the Election Commission has ordered extensive webcasting of the polling process, officials said on Wednesday April 6.
A senior official from the office of the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) told media persons that webcasting will be done in 100 per cent booths in case of Ballygunge constituency, and 51 per cent booths in case of Asansol Lok Sabha constituency.
While Ballygunge Assembly constituency has a total 300 booths, the number in case of Asansol Lok Sabha constituency is 2,102. “A total of 23 booths in Ballygunge have been declared as sensitive. The number of identified sensitive booth in case of Asansol is 680,” the official said.
According to him, while Ballygunge will have 40 micro-observers, the number in case of Asansol will be 442. A total of 133 companies of central armed forces will be deployed for the bypolls, out of which 116 companies will be allotted for Asansol and the remaining 17 companies for Ballygunge.
Trinamool Congress has field singer-turned politician and two-time BJP Lok Sabha member Babul Supriyo from Ballygunge. Former journalist, Keya Ghosh and Saira Shah Halim, the niece of legendary Bollywood actor, Naseeruddin Shah are the BJP and CPI-M candidates, respectively.
In Asanol, the Trinamool has fielded Bollywood star, Shatrughan Sinha, while the BJP nominee is fashion designer-turned-politician, Agnimitra Paul, who is already a sitting B|JP legislator from Asansol (South) Assembly constituency. The CPI-M candidate from Asansol is Partha Mukherjee.
