Kolkata, April 23 -- Amidst great enthusiasm and long queues of electors before polling booths, voting began on 152 seats for round one of the two-phase West Bengal Assembly elections under a thick multi-tier security bandobast at 7 am on Thursday.
From colourfully decked up women to ebullient and excited first-time voters, all patiently waited for their turn to participate in the biggest festival of democracy across the hills, tea gardens, plateaus, sea resorts and the planes in the northern, western and central parts of the eastern Indian state.
A large number of voters lined up before the booths even before voting opened in their eagerness to be among the early birds to choose their representatives from a pool of 1478 candidates, 167 o...