Kolkata, April 26: The polling for the seventh phase of the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 has begun at 7 am today. The voting is taking place in 34 Vidhan Sabha seats across three districts. The polling will conclude at 6:30 pm. There are a total of 268 candidates, including 37 women, in the fray in the seventh phase of the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021. West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 Dates: Polling in 8 Phases Between March 27 and April 29, Results on May 2; Check Full Schedule Here.

Over 81.88 lakh voters, including 39.87 lakh women and 221 third gender people, will decide the fate of the candidates. The voting will be held across 11,376 polling stations. BJP leaders Ashok Lahiri, Ga=ouri Shankar Ghosh ad Lt Gen (Retd) Subrata Saha, TMC leaders Shaoni Singha Roy, Debashish Kumar and Swapan Debnath, CPIM leader Aishe Ghosh are among the prominent candidates in the seventh phase. West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 Key Candidates in Phase 7:

Assembly Constituencies in Phase 7: 

S.No. Constituency Name
1 Kushmandi (SC)
2 Kumarganj
3 Balurghat
4 Tapan (ST)
5 Gangarampur (SC)
6 Harirampur
7 Habibpur (ST)
8 Gazole (SC)
9 Chanchal
10 Harischandrapur
11 Malatipur
12 Ratua
13 Farakka
14 Suti
15 Raghunathganj
16 Sagardighi
17 Lalgola
18 Bhagawangola
19 Raninagar
20 Murshidabad
21 Nabagram (SC)
22 Kolkata Port
23 Bhabanipur
24 Rashbehari
25 Ballygunge
26 Pandabeswar
27 Durgapur Purba
28 Durgapur Paschim
29 Raniganj
30 Jamuria
31 Asansol Dakshin
32 Asansol Uttar
33 Kulti
34 Barabani

The main competition is between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Till now, elections have been conducted on 223 constituencies out of 294 in the first six phases. A total of 71 Vidhan Sabha seats will go to polls in the remaining two phases on April 26 and 29.

The campaigning for the seventh phase ended on April 23, 72 hours before the polling, due to a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic. The assembly elections in West Bengal are taking place in eight phases from March 27 to April 29. The results will be declared on May 2.

Meanwhile, Jangipur and Samserganj assembly constituencies will go to the polls on May 16 as the voting was cancelled in these two Vidhan Sabha seats following the death of two candidates. The voting in these constituencies were initially scheduled to take place in the seventh phase only. The results in these seats will be announced on May 19.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2021 07:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).