Campaigning ends for fourth phase of WB polls

Kolkata: Campaigning ended on Sunday for the fourth phase of Assembly elections on May 3 in West Bengal covering 63 constituencies, including Nandigram and Singur which changed the political scene of the state in the last few years.

The fate of 366 candidates including seven ministers in 63 seats spread over Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore districts and parts of Burdwan district would be decided by an electorate of 1.26,03,454 on May three.

There are 16 seats each in Howrah and East Midnapore districts, 18 in Hooghly district and 13 in Burdwan.

CPM heavyweight and industries minister Nirupam Sen is pitted against retired professor of Burdwan University Rabiranjan Chattopadhyay of Trinamool Congress from Burdwan South constituency.

Other ministers from the CPM are Higher Education minister Sudarshan Roychowdhury, Food Processing minister Mohanta Chatterjee, Minister of state for Information and Culture Soumendranath Bera, Technical Education minister

Chakradhar Maikap.

Also in the fray are Agriculture minister Naren Dey belonging to Forward Bloc and Fire Services minister Pratim Chatterjee belonging to Marxist Forward Bloc. Three former IPS officers Rachpal Singh, Haider Aziz Sawfi and Sultan Singh have been fielded by the Trinamool Congress candidates in this phase.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee during campaigning asserted that though the relocation of the Nano project had been costly for the state, it would not stop the industrialisation drive.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, has held that Nandigram, where 14 persons were killed in police firing on March 14, 2007 which led to the anti-land acquisition movement would be the spearhead of political change in the state.

Another star poll campaigner was senior Congress leader and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Top BJP leaders L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley campaigned for the BJP candidates highlighting the price rise, blackmoney and corruption during the UPA regime and lashed out at the Left Front for its 34 years of 'misrule'.

Of the six phases of the elections, three have been completed on April 18, 23 and 27. The fifth phase will take place on May 7 and sixth on May 10.