Silence reigns ahead of polling for final phase | Economic Times

Polling in 35 seats across North Kolkata, Murshidabad, Malda and Birbhum on Thursday will mark the end of the eight-phase assembly polls in West Bengal. The campaigning for the last phase was marked by low-profile canvassing by candidates amid curbs on public rallies and roadshows by the Election Commission as Covid-19 cases surged in the state and the country.The campaigning for the phase saw West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee repeatedly attacking BJP leaders for spreading Covid-19 in the state by ‘bringing in outsiders’. The CM also lashed out at the EC for not agreeing to its request to club the polls and accused the body of becoming the BJP’s ‘Tia, Moina and Aaina' (parrot, myna and mirror) while the BJP president JP Nadda accused the CM of politicising the pandemic. 82302125West Bengal on Tuesday logged 16,403 fresh Covid-19 cases, the highest-single day spike in the state, with the number of active cases going beyond 1 lakh. Among the places that will see polling on Thursday, BJP has placed big bets on Birbhum, promising to restore the glory of Rabindranath Tagore's Shanti Niketan that is situated in Bolpur here. The BJP has fielded Anirban Ganguly, author and director of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, from Bolpur.