Resumo de Vote In West-bengal

Kolkata - Curtains came down Monday on West Bengal?s staggered five-phase assembly elections with peaceful polling in six northern districts, as exit polls predicted a seventh term in office for the Left Front.
There was 72 percent voter turnout in the last round in the 49 seats in six districts of Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda, said Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Sen.
At the end of the final round, exit poll results by Bengali TV channels predicted 195-210 seats for the Left Front in the 294-member assembly (polls were held in 293), followed by 44-56 seats for the Trinamool Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance, 30-35 for Congress and between three and eight seats for other parties.
The Left Front has 199 members in the outgoing assembly, followed by 60 of Trinamool-BJP and 26 of Congress.
Exit poll results by Star Ananda-AC Nielson gave 208 seats to Left Front (35 in the last phase), 44 to Trinamool-BJP combine (one in the last phase) and 33 for Congress (10 in the last phase). The channel predicted eight seats for other parties.
Another survey by Kolkata TV with ORG Marg gave 195 to 210 seats to the Left Front (31 in last phase), 48 to 56 to the Trinamool-BJP combine (three in last phase) and 30 to 35 to the Congress (12 in the last phase). It gave between seven and nine to others.
The 2006 assembly election in West Bengal is touted largely as a mandate for Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya?s pro-industrialisation posturing and if the Left had another cakewalk to the famous red building - Writers Buildings - in Kolkata, it would be a historic win but with no element of surprise.
Sen said no untoward incident was reported till the 10-hour balloting ended at 5 p.m. in the districts spread across the Darjeeling hills of the Himalayas to the Gangetic plains of Malda. Voters in some disturbed areas cast their ballots ignoring boycott calls by ethnic groups.
The six districts have 49 seats - 12 in Jalpaiguri, nine in Cooch Behar, five in Darjeeling, seven in Uttar Dinajpur, five in Dakshin Dinajpur and 11 in Malda.
There were 306 candidates, including 26 women, fighting it out in the last phase. The electorate was 8.17 million in this phase. The total electorate in the state is 48.9 million.
Deputy Election Commissioner Anand Kumar toured some districts and expressed satisfaction with the polling. He said the spontaneous turnout of voters was the biggest success of the exercise.
?The polling is peaceful everywhere and I appreciate the enthusiasm of the voters. Credit goes to all, from poll officials to the state police and the media,? he said.
Besides the battle in the volatile hills of Darjeeling and secessionism-racked Cooch Behar, the fifth round was a test for the Congress legacy in Malda where the party?s supreme leader A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury ruled for decades till his death last month.
A total of 9,089 polling stations were set up in the six districts. Siliguri is the largest assembly constituency with 270,339 electors while Manikchak of Malda is the smallest with 135,573 voters.
The highest altitude polling st
ation in the state and the third highest in the country - Srikhola under Darjeeling assembly constituency - also witnessed polls Monday.
In Cooch Behar, where the separatist Greater Cooch Behar People?s Association gave a vote-boycott call, a piquant situation has arisen with the movement divided ahead of the polls into two groups. The new group?s members have decided to ignore the boycott call and cast votes, much to the concern of the Left Front.
The luck of seven state ministers was tried once again in the fifth phase. They are Municipal Affairs Minister and Siliguri strongman Ashok Bhattacharya, Forest Minister Jogesh Burman, Relief Minister Hafiz Alam Sairani, Jail Affairs Minister Biswanth Choudhury, Civil Defence Minister Srikumar Mukherjee, Food Processing Minister Sailen Sarkar and Minister of State for Public Works Dasarath Tirkey.
Ruby Noor, sister of Ghani Khan; Deepa Dasmunsi, union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi?s wife; and Udayan Guha, state Agriculture Minister Kamal Guha?s son, are the other prominent contestants.
In the 2001 elections, out of the 49 seats, the Left Front had won 36. The 12 constituencies in Jalpaiguri and nine in adjoining Cooch Behar were swept by the Left Front.
In Darjeeling, where Subhas Ghisingh, the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) chief and architect of the 1980s violent statehood movement, rules supreme, the Left Front last time won the two seats of Siliguri and Phansidewa in the plains, out of the total five seats.
The three hill seats of Kalimpong, Kurseong and Darjeeling were bagged by the GNLF, which maintains a ?blow hot, blow cold? relationship with the ruling Left Front.
Of the seven seats in Uttar Dinajpur, the Left had won three, the Congress two and Trinamool Congress and an independent one each. In Dakshin Dinajpur, all the six seats were bagged by Left Front.
In Malda, where the Congress is traditionally strong, the Left Front was ahead by one seat, winning in six of th

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