- 73 per cent voter turnout in Bengal till 5 pm. Bongaon 75.73 per cent; Barrackpore 68.84 per cent; Howrah 68.84 per cent; Uluberia 74.50 per cent; Serampore: 71.18 per cent; Hooghly 74.17 per cent; Arambagh 76.90 per cent
- 62.72 per cent voter turnout in Bengal till 3 pm. Bongaon 61.83 per cent; Barrackpore 55.34 per cent; Howrah 58.81 per cent; Uluberia 66.45 per cent; Serampore: 63.05 per cent; Hooghly 65.01 per cent; Arambagh 67.12 per cent
- Uluberia: Congress candidate Azhar Mullick involved in altercation with Trinamul supporters.
- Howrah: Trinamul-BJP workers clash at Howrah's Unsani.
- A total of 48.41 per cent of the 1,25,23,702 electorate cast their vote till 1 pm in seven Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal that went to polls in the fifth phase on Monday, an Election Commission official said. The Arambag (SC) parliamentary registered the highest polling at 55.37 per cent followed by Uluberai at 52.79 per cent, Hooghly (50.50 per cent), Sreerampur (47.75 per cent), Howrah (44.71 per cent), Bangaon (SC) (44.15 per cent) and Barrackpore (42.47 per cent), he said.
- Barrackpore: BJP leader Kaustuv Bagchi's car attacked in Titagarh
- Barrackpore: BJP candidate Arjun Singh takes polling agent removed from polling booth allegedly by the presiding officer.
- Barrackpore: Power cuts in multiple booths. Voting being conducted in candle lights.
- Hooghly: BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee and Trinamul's MLA Asima Patra face off in Khanakul.
- Howrah: EC received complaints from voters in a booth in Liluah's Bharatiya Hindi High School, alleging the house complex they lived in was locked by local Trinamul workers. A Quick Response Team rescued the 60-70 odd voters and took them to the polling station and then back home. Local police instructed to arrest those involved.
- EC has received 1,036 complaints till 11 am.
- Bongaon: Trinamul candidate Biswajit Das alleged police misbehaving with women voters.
- 32.70 per cent voter turnout in Bengal till 11:00 am. Bongaon 31.81 per cent; Barrackpore 29.99 per cent; Howrah 30.89 per cent; Uluberia 33.98 per cent; Serampore: 31.74 per cent; Hooghly 33.78 per cent; Arambagh 36.21 per cent
- Barrackpore: Central forces and state police chase away miscreants at a village in Amdanga.
- Serampore: CPM candidate Dipsita Dhar questions how 40 per cent votes were polled in a booth where the CPM agents were not allowed since morning. Demands CCTV footage be produced to check if the voters were genuine.
- Howrah: CPM camp office attacked in Panchla. CPM nominee Sabyasachi Chatterjee says central forces are absent
- 15.35 per cent voter turnout in Bengal till 9 am. Bongaon 15.19 per cent; Barrackpore 15.08 per cent; Howrah 15.2 per cent; Uluberia 17.25 per cent; Serampore: 14.43 per cent; Hooghly 14.01 per cent; Arambagh 16.38 per cent
- 471 complaints received by EC in the first two hours of polling. Most complaints from Trinamul 30, followed by the CPM, 25 and 22 from the BJP.
- Hooghly: BJP nominee Locket Chatterjee in altercation with Trinamul supporters outside a booth
- Howrah: EC seeks Action Taken Report from Liluah booth where a presiding officer was allegedly assaulted.
- Bongaon: Clash between BJP and Trinamul workers in Swarupnagar.
- Arambagh: In Khananul, local BJP functionary assaulted. Three arrested.
- Arambagh: Three Trinamul workers assaulted in Khanakul
- Bongaon: BJP nominee Shantanu Thakur visits injured BJP workers at AIIMS Kalyani.
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Hooghly: BJP's Locket Chatterjee if even one agent faces any trouble there will be consequences.
- Hooghly: Trinamul candidate Rachana Banerjee's advise to party workers. Give Rosogolla to anyone who comes to argue.
- Barrackpore: BJP nominee Arjun Singh says, bike-borne youths assaulted women voters on the way to booths. Arun says, he was threatened he would be shot.
- Howrah: CPM nominee Sabyasachi Chatterjee says we are determined to ensure each voter can reach the polling booths and exercise their right.
- Serampore: CPM's Dipsita Dhar says, Trinamul workers have been intimidating villagers since last night, complaint lodged with police. Kalyan Banerjee knows he cannot win without rigging the polls.
- Howrah: In Liluah presiding officer alleges he was assaulted by polling agents. Voting yet to start after two hours.
- Serampore: Trinamul candidate Kalyan Banerjee says central forces acting on BJP's instructions committing excesses
- Bongaon: In Gayeshpur, BJP polling agents allege they were attacked by Trinamul workers when they were on the way to the booth.
- Barrackpore: BJP nominee Arjun Singh complains BJP agents not being allowed in Amdanga.
- Bongaon: Trinamul candidate Biswajit Das says BJP is making complains because they are losing. People will reject them.
- Uluberia: Local BJP leader's nephew attacked with sharp weapons.
- Hooghly: BJP nominee Locket Chatterjee visits a booth at Dhaniakhali where BJP polling agents were allegedly assaulted by Trinamul workers in the area.
- Kharagpur: Rs. 34 lakhs seized from a BJP leader in a hotel.
- Howrah: CPM area committee office ransacked in Salkia
Barrackpore had burnt for months and lives were lost to bombs and gun shots, during and after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a by –election in one of the Assembly segments, as the battle for domination raged between the BJP and the ruling Trinamul.
That history of violence has kept the Election Commission on the edge for Monday’s polling in the fifth phase in Barrackpore and six other constituencies - Bongaon, Serampore, Hooghly, Arambagh, Uluberia and Howrah - spread over the three districts of North 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly.
The Election Commission has identified 57.19 per cent of the total 13, 481 polling booths as sensitive, most of them in Hooghly, Arambagh, Barrackpore and Serampore.
Around 60,000 personnel from the central forces and 29, 172 from the Bengal police are deployed to ensure free and fair polling. Both the number of sensitive booths and deployment of forces are higher than the previous four phases.
On the day of polling on May 13 incidents of sporadic violence were reported in many constituencies, including an attack on the convoy of a BJP nominee, which has sparked fear of violence intensifying in the remaining three phases.
This time at least one BJP candidate is determined on a payback to the Trinamul. “If they try to repeat what they did in Durgapur (where BJP candidate Dilip Ghosh’s convoy was attacked twice), we are not going to remain silent,” said Arjun Singh, the BJP candidate.
For Singh this election is a personal battle as well.
After winning the seat on a BJP ticket, Singh had switched sides to the Trinamul which he claims was to stop the attack on his supporters in Barrackpore five years ago. Snubbed by the Trinamul once again, Singh made a quick return to the BJP and bagged the ticket.
The BJP is also aware if it has to retain the constituency --- once home to thriving jute mills -- it cannot do so without Singh’s muscles. It was Singh’s muscles which had 15 years ago helped Trinamul breach the former stronghold of the CPM, till the strongman’s political ambitions became larger that his party.
The Trinamul had got a taste of its own medicine as the BJP engineered defections one after the other in the municipalities like Naihati, Bijpur, Garulia, Halishahar and Kanchrapara in the constituency soon after Singh became an MP.
The first-time MP himself was under extreme pressure with 93 cases filed against him. Though, the Trinamul managed to win back most of the civic bodies as it opened the doors for the defectors including Singh, the battle for 2024 has revived the power struggle.
The BJP on the other hand is confident of retaining the Bongaon seat banking on the Citizenship Amendment Act, which the party believes will help it retain the loyalties of the Matua community. The BJP nominee Shantanu Thakur, a union minister in the Narendra Modi government, is a descendant of the Matua sect founder Harichand Thakur.
While Modi and Union Home minister have campaigned aggressively for the CAA in their speeches, chief minister Mamata Banerjee too has assured the community that she would not allow any resident to lose their rights, including the right to vote.
In five of the seven Assembly segments that make Bongaon, the Matua population is over 40 per cent.
There is confusion in the ground. While the BJP leaders insist all will have to apply, the ruling Trinamul led by Mamata has warned about the possibility of the applicants being labelled foreigners once they submit the application. To add to the confusion, the Trinamul general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has declared the party would support CAA, if the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not implemented. Which narrative prevails will be decided in the votes cast later in the day.
Across the river in Hooghly, the Trinamul has fielded popular TV personality Rachana Banerjee to take on the BJP’s Locket Chatterjee, also an actor. The BJP is also confident of wresting the neighbouring Arambagh seat, which it had lost last time by a narrow margin of around 1,000 votes. The Trinamul has replaced the sitting MP Aparupa Poddar with Mitali Bag, contesting her first Lok Sabha polls.
The veteran Kalyan Banerjee of the Trinamul faces his former son-in-law Kabirshankar Basu fielded by the BJP.
The CPM and the Congress, contesting the polls together, are contesting in four and three seats respectively.
"After coming here it is visible that there is an atmosphere of fear and there is no need for proof. Whoever spends an hour here, will know what is the condition of Sandeshkhali...The image of Sandeshkhali is not good for West Bengal & TMC and Mamata Banerjee does not understand that," said Himanta Biswa Sarma said at while campaigning in Barasat on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be campaigning in Tamluk's Haldia and Jhargram on Monday.