West Bengal polls: 33.98 per cent voter turnout till 11:30 am in phase 4

The Falakata constituency in the state has witnessed the highest voting percentage with a voter turnout of 40.45 per cent till 11.30 am, while the Jadavpur constituency witnessed the lowest voting percentage with a voter turnout of 21.23 per cent.

This phase of the elections will witness an intense battle between 373 candidates in 44 constituencies of the state across five districts -- Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly.

BJP candidate from Bhangar constituency in South 24 Parganas district, Soumi Hati cast her vote for the fourth phase.

ITBP personnel, deployed on election duty, at polling booths in Rishra of Hooghly district helped an elderly woman as she arrived to cast her vote for the fourth phase of West Bengal polls.Security personnel also helped a woman voter get to a polling station in Alipurduar, as the fourth phase of Assembly elections is underway in the state.

A total of 1,15,81,022 voters will participate in this phase, out of which 2,63,016 are first-time voters. The smallest constituency is Bally with 1,76,001 electorates whereas Chunchura is the biggest constituency with 3,13,701 electorates.

As many as 15,940 polling stations will be used, including 12,361 main and 3,579 auxiliary stations.

Security has been beefed up in all 44 constituencies with a total of 900 companies of security forces deployed to ensure a peaceful election.

Out of these, 140 companies of central forces are deployed in the nine Assembly seats in Howrah, 175 for Hooghly's 19 seats, 185 for South 24 Parganas' 11 seats, 105 in Alipurduar and 188 in the nine seats of Cooch Behar.

Among the 44 constituencies, nine are in Howrah, 10 in Hooghly, 11 in South 24 Parganas, five in Alipurduar and nine in Cooch Behar.

The fifth phase of the assembly elections will commence on April 17. Counting of votes will take place on May 2. (ANI)