2016 West Bengal Assembly Elections - Third Phase of Polling for 62 Seats today Thursday April 21,2016

The 62 seats that poll in the third phase in West Bengal on Thursday April 21,2016 can be separated into two clear regions.

One is the Malda, Murshidabad, Jangipur belt, in which the Congress has a considerable presence and the TMC was an also-ran even in 2014, when it swept the state.

The other is the parts of southern Bengal like Nadia, Burdwan and Kolkata where the TMC has held unquestioned sway in the last two elections.

In the 2011 assembly polls, the TMC won 29 of these seats and its ally the Congress 16, which meant the Left could get only 17 of the 62 seats.

In terms of vote share too, the TMC-Congress share of 47.8% was significantly higher than the Left's 41.8%

In the 2014 general election, however, while the TMC led in 34 of the assembly segments, it was able to do so only because of the completely splintered nature of the opposition vote with the Left, Congress and an emergent BJP all contesting separately.


Despite this splintering, the TMC led in almost no seat in the northern parts of this phase, where the contest was between the Congress and the Left. With both now on the same side, it would be a real surprise if they do not end up dominating this area.

The third phase of voting in West Bengal was marred by violence. The EC received more than 1,500 complaints. These included bombing of booths, attacks on CPM supporters and the first death of this election. At least 60 people were arrested in Kolkata.