Over 81% voting in 2nd phase in West Bengal

Kolkata, April 19 (IANS) West Bengal's Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Raiganj parliamentary constituencies recorded 81.68 per cent voting in the second phase on Thursday, an official said on Friday.

With a total of 7,68,565 men, 7,28,565 women and 1 'other' category voters, Jalpaiguri recorded 86.44 per cent votes, said Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Basu here.

There were 6,42,583 men, 6,15,432 women and four third gender voters in Darjeeling, and 6,40,581 men, 6,33,099 women and four other category voters in Raiganj.

"Bypolls to the Darjeeling Assembly constituency will be held on May 19 and the counting will be done on May 23," Basu said. The bypoll was necessitated after MLA Amar Singh Rai resigned to contest the Lok Sabha poll on a Trinamool Congress ticket.

He said the notification will be issued on April 22. The last date of filing of nominations is April 29 and the scrutiny will be done on April 30. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 2.

Basu said the news of rigging in poll station 191 in Raiganj constituency's Goalpokhor was completely untrue and baseless. "This has been confirmed after detailed investigation done by the EC observers," he said.