Kolkata: The counting of votes for the West Bengal bypoll elections began at 8 am in Kolkata on Sunday. The Bhabanipur bypoll will decide the fate of Mamata Banerjee whether she will remain the state’s chief minister or not.
The polling was held in Bhabanipur, Jangipur and Samserganj assembly constituencies of the state on September 30.
Twenty four companies of central forces have been deployed at the counting centres, and the entire area will be put under CCTV surveillance. Officials will only be allowed pen and paper and only the returning officer and observer are allowed to use phones, officials informed.
Bengal’s Bhabanipur assembly seat, from where Chief Minister Banerjee had contested, recorded a voter turnout of 57.09% on September 30.
During the West Bengal Assembly Election 2021, Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party (TMC) emerged winner defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party by a huge margin. The TMC had registered a landslide victory in assembly polls winning 213 of 294 seats in the West Bengal assembly. The BJP won 77 seats.
However, Banerjee had lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in the Nandigram constituency in the assembly polls. Thereafter, the Bhabanipur assembly seat was vacated by the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, paving the way for Mamata Banerjee to contest the bypoll.