Kolkata, Sep 5 (IANS): Polling is underway for the bypoll to the Dhupguri Assembly constituency in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district with the polling process being peaceful so far. In the first two hours of the polls, the voting percentage was 17 per cent.

As per the directives of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the polling is being conducted under strict security cover with as many as 30 companies of central armed formed personnel being deputed to man 260 polling booths. Almost 20 per cent of the central armed forces have been kept on reserve for emergencies. A total of 1,200 polling officials and staff are manning the conduction of the smooth polling process.

Till 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in West Bengal had not received a single complaint of election malpractices. The scene was a study-in-contrast to that of the recently concluded polls for the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal which since the beginning was marred by reports of violence and bloodbath.

The bypolls in Dhupguri had been necessitated by the sudden demise of the erstwhile BJP legislator Bishnu Pada Roy on July 25. He came to Kolkata to participate in the monsoon session of West Bengal Assembly and was admitted to a city-based hospital after he complained of the chest-pain. He died soon after at the hospital.

The Dhupguri bypoll is witnessing a three cornered fight -- Trinamool Congress, BJP and Congress- backed CPI(M).

BJP, has fielded Tapasi Roy, the widow of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan Jagannath Roy, who was martyred in a terror attack in J&K's Lawaypora on March 25, 2021.

The Trinamool Congress has fielded Nirmal Chandra Roy, a professor at the Dhupguri Girls College.

The Congress- backed Trinamool Congress candidate is Ishwar Chandra Roy.

In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, BJP’s Bishnu Pada Roy defeated Trinamool Congress’s sitting MLA Mitali Roy by a margin of 4,355 votes. Being denied re-nomination in the bypolls, Mitali Roy quit Trinamool Congress and joined BJP just a couple of days ago.