Kolkata, June 19 (IANS) The polling process for the by-polls for the Kaliganj assembly constituency in West Bengal concluded on Thursday, with the polling process throughout the day being peaceful, barring some stray incidents in the first hour after the process started at 7 a.m.
The polling percentage till 5 p.m. was at 60.32. Although the official polling time ended at 6 p.m., the polling continued in certain booths where the voters continued to be in the queue even after 6 p.m. The final polling percentage will not be available before Friday morning.
Bad weather conditions almost throughout the day also resulted in the lower voter turnout, especially during the peak period of the first four hours since the beginning of the polling process.
At the end of the day, none of the candidates of the three major political parties of Trinamool Congress, BJP, and the Left Front-supported Congress had any major complaint of election-related malpractices.
This was essentially because of the effective monitoring of the polling process by the election-related officials and constant patrolling of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel that started from the very first hour and continued till the end of the polls.
Kaliganj is one of the five Assembly constituencies in four Indian states where by-polls are being held on Thursday.
Bypolls for the Kaliganj Assembly constituency in West Bengal were necessitated following the sudden demise of its erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year at the age of 70.
The counting will be held on June 23.
–IANS
src/dan
