Campaign ends for sixth phase of elections in Bengal

Kolkata, May 10 (IANS) With Lok Sabha 2019 elections reaching its penultimate stage, the campaign ended on Saturday in eight parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal that will vote in the sixth phase on May 12.

With big rallies, road shows, street corner meetings and last minute door-to-door contact with voters, canvassing reached a peak over the past couple of days in Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram (ST), Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur (SC) before coming to an end at 6 p.m.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Trinamool's support and the party's celebrity candidate Deepak Adhikari (Dev) were among the star campaigners.

An electorate of around 1,33,56,964 will decide the fate of 83 candidates in the eight seats.

Bengali film star-cum-sitting MP Deepak (Dev) Adhikari, Rajya Sabha member Manas Bhunia, former Union Minister Sisir Adhikari, state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee (all Trinamool) and BJP state President Dilip Ghosh and former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh (BJP) are among the star candidates in this phase.

The Ghatal seat is grabbing a lot of attention as Dev is being challenged by BJP's Ghosh.

According to an analysis done by the West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, 16 candidates have assets worth over Rs 1 crore and 28 declared criminal cases against themselves.

In 2014, Trinamool had won all eight seats.