Amid the third phase of the high-stakes West Bengal Assembly elections, media persons and volunteers have alleged that they were pushed out by security personnel from a polling booth in Tarakeswar on Tuesday.
In the chaotic situation at the booth, several media persons and volunteers were seen arguing with central forces deployed there to ensure security.
BJP's Swapan Dasgupta is contesting from the Tarakeswar constituency in Hooghly. Dasgupta, a noted journalist and a Padma Bhushan awardee, has been a Rajya Sabha member who resigned recently to contest the West Bengal Assembly polls.
Dasgupta is facing Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Ramendu Singha Roy and CPI(M)'s Surajit Ghosh in the Tarakeswar constituency.
Voting for 31 seats across three districts in the third phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections began at 7 am. There are 205 candidates in the fray in this round of polling, with Diamond Harbour having the maximum number of candidates at 11.
A total of 78,52,425 electors are taking part in the third phase of the polls. Of these, 2,30,055 people are voting for the first time. A total of 1,26,148 voters fall in the age group of above 80 years.
Polling for the first two phases of the West Bengal elections were held on March 27 and April 1 respectively. The fourth phase of polling will take place on April 10. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.
( With inputs from ANI )
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