In the first phase of the Assembly polls, as many as 79.79 per cent voters exercised their franchise for 30 Assembly seats in West Bengal (WB) and Over 77 per cent of Assam’s voters cast their votes on Saturday

As many as 79.79 per cent voters exercised their franchise in ten hours of polling for 30 Assembly seats in West Bengal on Saturday. Over 77 per cent of Assam’s 8,109,815 voters cast their votes on Saturday in the first phase of the state’s Assembly polls which were conducted in 47 of the 126 Assembly constituencies, election officials said.

“The turnout of voters is estimated at over 77 per cent. The percentage may increase a bit after the final compilation of reports from all the returning officers,” a senior election official told IANS over the phone on Saturday night.

More than half of the 73-lakh electorate in Bengal’s 30 Assembly constituencies have cast their ballot and sealed the fate of 191 candidates who are in the fray on the first day of the eight-phase elections in West Bengal where polling is underway in five districts.

At least 21 female aspirants are contesting elections in West Bengal while 23 in Assam.

In Bengal, the serpentine queues showed people are aware of the importance of the crucial poll that is seeing a bitter battle between the ruling Trinamool Congress-led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP that has pitched every high-profile leader into campaigning in West Bengal.

In Assam, after casting his vote at Sahitya Sabha Bhavan in Dibrugarh, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who is contesting from Majuli, told the media that the BJP would get more than 100 seats in the 126-member Assembly.

Both the ruling BJP-led alliance and the opposition Congress led coalition are confident of winning maximum seats out of the 47 seats that went to polls on Saturday.

In the 2016 elections, the ruling BJP-led alliance secured 35 of the 47 seats, while the Congress won nine and the remaining three seats by other parties.

In a unique gesture, the election officials donated saplings and Assam’s traditional ‘gamocha’ to the aged, women and differently abled voters in the 128 model polling stations, which were decorated with colourful balloons, flowers, bamboo crafts and local items.