Jalpaiguri, April 19 -- Apart from a few isolated incidents, polling passed off by at large peacefully in Jalpaiguri. At 5 pm the polling percentage stood at 79.33%.

Voting started at 7 o'clock on April 19 during the first phase of the LS polls amidst tight security. The day started with a drizzle bringing down temperatures. Even though the number of voters in the booths was low due to light rain in the beginning, long queues were seen over time.

At the beginning of polling, apart from Jalpaiguri Sadar, there were complaints of malfunctioning of EVM machines from nearby blocks. Professor Nirmal Chandra Roy, Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate for Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha constituency, cast his vote at 7 am at the Bamontary Additional Primary School.

"Polling was by and large peaceful except for the BJP MLA Shikha Chatterjee fomenting trouble in Dagram Phulbari," stated the TMC candidate. He said that he is optimistic about winning. BJP candidate Jayant Kumar Roy was seen visiting different booths of Jalpaiguri since morning. He alleged that TMC was intimidating voters. A booth office was burnt in the Dabgram Phulbari area.

"We have kept a strict tab on the poll process, especially on the security aspect," stated Khandabahale Umesh Ganpat, SP, Jalpaiguri. A holiday had been declared in all the tea gardens for the elections. Long queues were seen at the booths of all the gardens in Raipur, Karlavally, Minglas and Baradighi, besides the closed gardens adjacent to Jalpaiguri town.

Voting took place under the supervision of CAPF and forest workers in forest areas. Dijpratim Sen, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) said: "There are more than 60 booths in forest areas, including Bichavanga, Khutimari. Since Thursday forest workers have been deployed in these booths to prevent any wildlife attack. Patrolling is also being done by Forest personnel. However, no untoward incident occurred during polling." He said that the Forest guards would remain there until the poll workers return safely. In the Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha Constituency, 12 candidates are in the fray. The total number of voters is 1,885,963, and there are 1,904 polling stations.

To manage the polling process, 9,500 polling personnel were deployed. Jalpaiguri has 382 sensitive booths, for which 100 companies of central forces were deployed along with 4,000 state police personnel deployed across the polling stations.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.