By Saibal Gupta
Kolkata, Apr 7 (IANS): The people of the 31 assembly constituencies in West Bengal have voted overwhelmingly in the third phase of election conducted on April 6. The final percentage data released by the commission shows that the overall percentage in the 31 assembly constituencies is 84.6, which is better compared to the last Lok Sabha polls that had a percentage of meagre 80.5 so far these assembly constituencies are concerned.
A district-wise analysis shows that 16 constituencies of South 24 Parganas district that went for the polls on last Tuesday have an average polling percentage of 85.5 followed by 8 constituencies of Hooghly district that has a percentage of 83.7 and the 7 constituencies of Howrah has polling average of 83.5.
Interestingly the 16 constituencies of South 24 Parganas had a cumulative polling of only 82.5 per cent in the last Lok Sabha polls. Similarly, the 8 constituencies had an average of 81.6 per cent and the 7 constituencies had the lowest average of only 80.3 per cent.
Though the polling per cent improved compared to the Parliamentary election in 2019 but it was lower than the second phase of polling when 30 constituencies including Nandigram in West Midnapore district went for the polls on April 1.
According to election data, Nandigram, where the chief minister locked horns with her one-time aide Suvendu Adhikary, had a whopping polling percentage of 88 per cent and the average polling in the entire phase was 86.11. However, in the first phase when 30 assembly constituencies of Jhargram and East Midnapore went for the polls on March 27, the polling percentage was 84.63.
So far as individual constituencies are concerned, Khanakul in Hooghly district had the lowest percentage of 78.2 and Goghat in the same district had the highest polling percentage of 88.6 percentage. Two more constituencies of South 24 Parganas district - Diamond Harbour and Canning East crossed the 88 per cent mark.
While Canning East has a polling percentage of 88.3 per cent, Diamond Harbour has the polling percentage of 88 per cent.