2016 West Bengal Assembly Elections Phase 05 - Riya Sarkar Welcomed As First Transgender Presiding Officer In Bengal Polls Saturday April 30,2016

The fifth phase of West Bengal assembly polls is a watershed for the third gender community as for the first time one of them has been made presiding officer for a booth in South Kolkata.

"We are calling it the transgender booth because Riya Sarkar, a transgender, will be the presiding officer. She will now be part of history of the inclusion of the transgender community into the mainstream society," Smita Pandey, district electoral officer, Kolkata South, told

In Phase 05 WB Assembly Elections,53 constituencies in south Kolkata, Hooghly and South 24-Parganas go to polls on Saturday April 30,2016

This phase — 53 constituencies in South Kolkata, Hooghly and South 24-Parganas will vote on Saturday — will see the chief minister and four scam-tainted Trinamool Congress legislators amid a test for the Left-Congress combine to prove its hold on Kolkata.

This phase is in TMC's stronghold, in the districts of South 24 Paraganas, Kolkata and Hooghly. The party won 46 out of these 53 seats in the 2011 WB Assembly Elections