ProMASS News Bureau, Mar 11, 2016:
In West Bengal, the nomination phase has begun after notification for the Assembly elections to 18 constituencies was issued today. The Filing of nominations for all these seats will continue till 18th March and the scrutiny will be done on the 19th, the next day. Candidates will be allowed to withdraw nominations till 21st March.
All the Assembly seats fall under Jungle Mahal region of south-western Bengal. Six of them are in Paschim Medinipur, nine in Purulia and three in Bankura district of the state. Voting will be held for these constituencies, located in a contiguous are known as Jungle Mahal, on 4th April under the phase One-A of the six-phase voting-process.
All the 18 seats have been categorized as sensitive, due to the Maoist problem that existed here till about three years back, and special security has been put in place by the Election Commission. The elections to all the 294 seats of West Bengal Assembly will be conducted in six voting phases, spread across seven polling days, till May 5th. The counting of all the constituencies will be done on 19th May.
Having announced her candidates on all the seats, Trinamul Congress chairperson, Mamata Banerjee released the TMC manifesto in the afternoon today projecting a roadmap of state’s future course for the next five years. The Left front and BJP have announced partial lists of their candidates and the Congress released only a partial list of 75 seats on which it will field candidates in the ensued polls. The election manifestos of these parties are yet to come out.
To make a final review of arrangements for free and fair polls, the full bench of the Election Commission, led by CEC Nasim Zaidi, will pay a two-day visit to Kolkata from Monday. Commission sources informed that on 14th, the team will talk to representatives of political parties and hold meetings with senor administrative officers of the state. On Tuesday, Mr. Zaidi and his colleagues will meet all the DMs and SPs to assess the electoral arrangements.
In Assam, the notification for the first phase of assembly polls has been issued today. Polling for this phase will be held on 4th of April in 65 seats. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on 19th of this month while 21st March is the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers.
AIR correspondent reports that with the issuance of notification, formal process of filing nomination papers has begun in Barak valley, hill districts and Upper and North Assam. BJP,Asom Gana Parishad, Bodoland People’s Front, Left parties , Liberal Democratic Party among others have announced candidates list for several constituencies. Campaigning is also gradually gaining momentum in poll bound Assam. Rallies, road shows and bike rallies are being organized by political parties to woo voters.
