Lori Delaurentis POETRY
POETRY_183_JOURNAL
INC revealed its first list of 13 candidates for the first two phases on 6 March.Left Front announced its second list of candidates on 10 March, consisting of several new and young faces from All India Students Federation (AISF), All India Youth Federation (AIYF), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), along with ex- ministers of the Left Front government and ex-MPs; Bose also nominated DYFI West Bengal state president Minakshi Mukherjee as the CPI(M) candidate for the Nandigram seat, which was kept vacant in the first list published on 5 March.On 14 March, INC revealed their second list of 34 candidates on 14 March, and ISF their first set of 20 candidates.Sanyukta Morcha announced 15 more candidates on 17 March consisting of 9 from the Left Front, 2 from INC, and 4 from ISF.INC revealed their third list of 39 candidates on 20 March, and two more on 22 March.=== National Democratic Alliance ===
Five hill-based parties pledged support to BJP ahead of the assembly election: Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha, and SUMETI Mukti Morcha.Hindu Samhati, a right-wing organisation in West Bengal, had withdrawn their support from the BJP at first to contest the elections on their own, but eventually they supported the BJP.BJP allotted the Amta constituency seat to the president of Hindu Samhati to contest under the symbol of BJP.BJP also allotted the Baghmundi constituency, bordering Jharkhand, to the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).=== Others ===
Shiv Sena initially said that they would contest in around 100 seats, but later on 4 March 2021 announced that they would not contest and would support Mamata Banerjee and TMC.== Candidates ==
== Surveys and polls ==
=== Exit poll ===
On 27 March, the ECI banned the publication of surveys and exit polls until 7:30 pm on 29 April to prevent influencing voters, but the ban ended half an hour earlier.NK Digital Magazine's exit poll predicted victory for TMC in general election for the Samserganj seat and by-election for the Bhabanipur seat.Ekhon Biswa Bangla Sangbad predicted TMC's victory in all three seats where elections took place on 30 September.=== Opinion poll ===
A number of pre-poll surveys for the elections were published by different agencies and groups in the span of one year until 27 March.Most polls contradicted each other regarding the possible outcome.NK Digital Magazine's opinion poll predicted victory for TMC in Jangipur and Samserganj.They also conducted a pre-poll survey across poll-bound Assembly constituencies that predicted TMC's victory.== Election ==
=== COVID-19 guidelines ===
The ECI issued various health guidelines for conducting the elections, including the use of masks, sanitisation of the polling booths, use of thermal scanners before entering the polling booths, maintaining social distancing, and so forth.The maximum number of voters
for each polling station was lowered to 1000 from 1500.After COVID-19 cases increased in the state, the ECI issued warnings for all recognised state and national political parties to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines, and banned all political rallies, public meetings, street plays and nukkad sabhas from 7 pm to 10 am starting from 16 April.On 22 April 2021, before the seventh and eighth phases of voting, the ECI forbade roadshows, and added that at most 500 people were allowed in public meetings.On 27 April, they issued a notification over banning victory processions on and after the day the votes were counted.=== Security preparations ===
After several instances of violence, threats, and murders before the polls were announced, the ECI and the Home Ministry ordered twelve companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to be deployed in West Bengal on 20 February.At least 125 more CAPF troops were dispatched to reach West Bengal on 25 February to focus on sensitive zones.60 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), 25 companies of the Border Security Force (BSF) and five companies each of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).The total number of central forces rose to 725, before a final total of 1,000 companies after the third phase of polling.In the second phase of election, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was implemented across areas in the Tamluk and Haldia subdivisions.After the fourth phase of polling, the ECI deployed an extra 71 companies of central forces.=== Voting
===
==== Voter turnout ====
Number of general voters: 73,294,980 Male voters: 37,366,306
Female voters: 35,927,084 Non-binary voters: 1,590
Number of service voters: 112,642 Overseas voters: 210
Total number of voters: 73,407,832 Polling stations: 101,916
==== Phases ====
== Incidents ==
In February, Jakir Hossain, the MLA from Jangipur and Labour Minister of West Bengal, received serious injuries after bombs were thrown at him in the Nimtita railway station.On their way to attend the Brigade rally of Sanjukta Morcha, ISF workers attacked TMC
activists in Bhangar.On 10 March, Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination at the Haldia sub- divisional office headquarters as the TMC candidate for Nandigram.Around 6:15 pm she was injured when she was leaving the Birulia market area of that constituency.She alleged that she was pushed by "four-five people" who manhandled her and slammed the door of her car on her foot.She was taken to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata for treatment.
