West Bengal assembly polls: Around 22% voter turnout recorded in first two hours

Nearly 22% turnout was recorded in the first two hours after polling began in 49 constituencies spread over two districts - Howrah and North 24 Parganas - bordering Kolkata in phase four of the West Bengal assembly elections on Monday.

"Till 9.00 a.m, 21.87% turnout was recorded, with 22.63% in North 24 Parganas and 20.34% in Howrah," said an Election Commission (EC) official.

Read more from our special coverage on "WEST BENGAL ASSEMBLY POLLS"

• West Bengal assembly polls: Fourth phase of voting begins today
• Congress, CPI(M) will realise mistake of forging alliance: Mamata Banerjee
• Rahul Gandhi attacks Mamata Banerjee, Modi; seeks vote for Cong-CPI(M) in Bengal
• Bengal assembly polls: CPI(M) not to succumb to politics of terror, says Sitaram Yechury
• West Bengal Assembly polls: Mamata Banerjee responds to EC show-cause notice

While the EC claimed the polls to be peaceful so far, the BJP and the Congress alleged false voting in some of the booths.

BJP's Roopa Ganguly contesting from Howrah North alleged false voting in one of the booths and also faced angry protests from alleged Trinamool Congress activists.

Her rival from the Trinamool Congress, retired international cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, denied the charges and claimed polling was peaceful in the constituency.

North 24 Parganas, a part of which falls under the world's largest mangrove forests - the Sundarbans - has 33 constituencies. The remaining 16 are in Howrah.

Over 1.08 crore (1,08,16,942) voters across 12,481 polling stations, including 27 auxiliary booths, are eligible to decide the fate of 345 candidates - 40 of them female - between 7.00 a.m and 6.00 p.m.

The Election Commission has used 14,353 electronic voting machines (EVM) and 680 Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

A total of 672 companies of central forces and 23,000 state police personnel have been deployed, in addition to other measures, to ensure free and fair polls in the two districts, considered volatile in view of their history of political clashes and poll-related disturbances in past Elections.

In the Sundarbans region, equipped with ham radio operations to solar lights, officials have gone the extra mile to ensure the electorate gets a chance to exercise their voting rights.

In the 2011 assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress - then an ally of the Congress - had bagged 43 of the 49 seats. The Congress had got two, the Left Front spearhead Communist Party of India-Marxist three and the Communist Party of India one.

The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are in fray in all the constituencies. The Left Front constituents and the Congress are contesting 46 seats, leaving one seat to Janata Dal-United, besides backing two independents.Read more about Assembly Elections in 2016.