Elections in the fifth and last phase of the assembly elections will be held in six northern Bengal districts in 49 seats on Monday to determine the fate of 306 candidates, including seven ministers of the Left Front government.
The six districts -- Coochbehar (9 seats), Jalpaiguri (12 seats), Uttar Dinajpur (seven seats), Dakshin Dinajpur (five seats), Malda (eleven seats) and Darjeeling (five seats) -- have a total electorate of 81.76 lakh.
Ministers in the fray are Asoke Bhattacharjee, Jogesh Barman, Biswanath Choudhury, Sailen Sarkar, Hafiz Alam Sairani, Srikumar Mukherjee and Dasharath Tirkey.
Information and Broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi's wife Deepa is also in the fray from Goalpokhar.
The Minister for Agriculture, Kamal Guha and Minister for Tourism Dinesh Dakua are not contesting the polls.
Guha, who has said he would stay away from active politics and concentrate on social work, has fielded his son Udyan, who is the All India Forward Block (AIFB) candidate from Dinhata constituency in Coochbehar district.
With the special drive of the Election Commission to make the electoral roll as clean as possible, 1.35 lakh names were deleted from the electoral rolls and 85,184 new voters included.
{{/usCountry}}With the special drive of the Election Commission to make the electoral roll as clean as possible, 1.35 lakh names were deleted from the electoral rolls and 85,184 new voters included.
{{/usCountry}}A total of 477 companies have been deployed in the six districts, with strict vigil being kept on the Indo-Bangla border and the inter state border with Assam.