Nearly 29% poll recorded till 10 am in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Nearly 29 per cent of the 60,33,310 voters in four parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal cast their votes till 10 am in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state.

"About 28.79 per cent polling was recorded on an average in first three hours of polling in four Lok Sabha constituencies of Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in North Bengal," state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sunil Gupta said here today.

Even as a few of the EVMs had to be replaced after mock polling before the election process began in some places, the entire election process was peaceful, Gupta said.

Reports of malfunctioning of five EVMs each were received from Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar constituencies respectively.

"We have not yet received report of any major incident regarding disruption of law and order situation or complaint of booth jam or violation of the Model Code of Conduct," Gupta said.

Arrangements were made for webcasting and live monitoring of sensitive areas amid tight security provided by central forces which were more than double than the 2011 Assembly election.