Polling begins in fifth phase of Bengal Assembly election

Voting began at 7 am across 53 constituencies of South 24 Parganas, Kolkata south and Hooghly districts.

Over 1.2 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise  at  more than 14,500 booths in the three districts of the state.

The total number of voters in 31 constituencies of South 24 Parganas district is approximately 72 lakhs, while that in 18 constituencies of Hoogly district is about 43 lakhs. The total number of voters in 4 constituencies of Kolkata Dakshin is 9 lakhs approximately.

Forty-three women out of 349 candidates are in the fray for phase 5 election to 53 Assembly Constituencies in three districts of West Bengal which witnessed a massive change in the political scenario last time in 2011 when Mamata Banerjee and her TMC came to power by removing the Left Front government. The Left-Front ruled the state for 34 years.

They are contesting from 29 constituencies.

There are 26 female candidates in South 24 Parganas, 9 in Kolkata Dakshin and 8 in Hoogly district.

The main contest in the three districts are between the ruling  Trinamool Congress, Left-Front- Congress alliance and the BJP.

Fates of several important candidates, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will be decided by voters across three districts of the politically crucial state.

Banerjee, who is contesting from  Bhawanipur constituency, is facing challenge from  Left Front-backed Congress nominee Deepa Dasmunshi and BJP's Chandra Kumar Bose.

Bose is the grand nephew of freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Apart from the CM, voters will also decide the fates of several state ministers like Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim,Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, Housing and Youth Affairs Minister Aroop Biswas, Power Minister Manish Gupta and Fire Service and Disaster Management Minister Javed Ahmed Khan  in this phase of the polls.

A 90,000-strong contingent of central and state police forces have been deployed in three districts to ensure peaceful voting on Saturday.

Several crude bombs were recovered from different parts of Kolkata on Friday, reports said.

Security forces recovered at least 10 crude bombs from Tiljala area in the city.

The area is under Ballyganj Assembly constituency.

Bombs were also recovered from Alipur road area in south Kolkata.

The political scenario in Bengal was hit by the Saradha and the Narada scams in recent times.

A division bench of Calcutta High Court, comprising of CJ Manjulla Chellur and Justice Arijit Banerjee, on Friday directed to conduct a forensic test of the raw footage of Narada News's sting operation.

The footage and video-shooting gadget (Iphone) will be tested in Hyderabad lab.

The HC instructed the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad to submit forensic test's report, in a sealed envelop, before the court in next 4 weeks.

The ruling Trinamool Congress recently announced that it will conduct an internal inquiry into the Narada News sting operation case, nearly one month after the news portal released sting footage, showing TMC leaders taking bribes.

Earlier on Mar 14, Narada News released the first part of its sting operation's video, where West Bengal's ruling TMC leaders or officials or lawmakers, including MH Ahmed Mirza (senior police officer), Mukul Roy, Subrata Mukherjee, Sultan Ahmed, Suvendhu Adhikari,  Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasoon Banerjee, Sovon Chatterjee, Madan Mitra, Iqbal Ahmed and Farhad Hakim, were shown taking bribes.

TMC leaderships, however, claimed that the entire video was doctored and oppositions' conspiracy before the Bengal assembly polls.