Lok Sabha polls 2024: West Bengal to vote in all seven phases

The Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal will be held across all seven phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1.

Except for Bengal, only Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will vote in all phases of the upcoming elections.

Bengal has 42 LS constituencies.

The first phase of elections will witness polling in three constituencies in the state.

Here is when all constituencies of West Bengal will vote for the upcoming general elections:

• Phase I - April 19 - Cooch Behar, Alipurduars, Jalpaiguri

• Phase II - April 26 - Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat

• Phase III - May 7 - Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Jangipur, Murshidabad

• Phase IV - May 13 - Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur, Birbhum

• Phase V - May 20 - Bangaon, Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Srerampur, Hooghly, Arambagh

• Phase VI - May 25 - Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura, Bishnupur

• Phase VII - June 1 - Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, Kolkata Uttar

In the 2019 general elections, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won 22 of the 42 seats in the state while the BJP triumphed in 18 seats. The Indian National Congress was declared the winner in two seats.

The BJP made significant inroads into West Bengal politics after their dramatic improvement in the 2019 polls from the one in 2014, when they had only managed to secure two seats in the state with a vote percentage of 17 per cent. In 2019, their vote share more than doubled to 40.6 per cent.

The Election Commission has declared six of West Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha constituencies as "financially sensitive", and directed investigative agencies of the state and the Centre to keep a constant vigil on them.

These six constituencies are Darjeeling, Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Asansol, Bangaon and Kolkata North, he said.

"A huge amount of money was seized from these constituencies during previous elections. A large quantity of liquor was also confiscated from here. Going by these records, these constituencies have been declared financially sensitive," an official told PTI.

The EC also appointed expenditure observers for Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri, which are going to the polls in the first phase on April 19.

On Tuesday, March 19, the EC removed Vivek Sahay as West Bengal DGP, less than 24 hours after naming him for the post, and directed the state government to appoint Sanjoy Mukherjee, a year junior to Sahay in the IPS cadre, in his place.

The move, unprecedented in recent memory, rendered Sahay the shortest-serving DGP of West Bengal.

Sahay, an IPS officer of the 1988 batch, was initially offered the appointment since he was the senior-most officer in the force. But owing to his scheduled superannuation on May 31, well ahead of the formal conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4, the poll panel considered naming Mukherjee, a 1989 batch officer, as the DGP, a senior official said.

Mukherjee, the Director General of the state Fire & Emergency Services was the second on the list of the three officers recommended by the Bengal government for the post of DGP to the ECI after the poll panel directed the removal of Rajeev Kumar from that position in the run-up to the elections.

With PTI inputs