West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates: It’s the assembly elections season in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Polling happened in a single phase in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on April 6, while voters in Assam cast their votes in three phases. Polling in Bengal is happening in eight phases. Of these, five phases have concluded. The next phase will

BJP national president JP Nadda chaired a meeting to review and guide preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public rallies and other rallies in the new format. BJP has decided that only small public meetings with not more than 500 people will be held by PM and other union ministers in West Bengal. 

Why not same passion to win the war against COVID-19 as shown to win polls: Kapil Sibal to PM Modi

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal today asked why he was not showing the same passion to win the war against coronavirus as shown to win elections. With the country reeling under a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress has questioned Prime Minister Modi for addressing poll rallies in West Bengal while "ignoring his responsibilities" at the Centre.

"Modiji, you use all your: might, muscle power, lung power, resources to win elections. Why not the same passion to win the war against Coronavirus for our people?" Sibal said in a tweet. In another tweet, the former Union minister said, "As people die of the pandemic, A citizen to Modiji: Rallies are fine, victories divine, but the battles you are fighting are really not mine!"

TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy: 

On April 15, our party chief Mamata Banerjee appealed to the Election Commission to club together with the remaining phases of polls, keeping an eye on the COVID-19 situation. She repeated the same thing yesterday. We have submitted a memorandum to state EC with the request to consider and review this.

TMC speaking in different voices on the leader being probed by CBI, ED: Amit Shah

Asserting that those involved in stealing funds meant for the people of West Bengal will be put behind bars, Union Home Minister Amit Shah yesterday claimed that the Trinamool Congress is speaking in different voices on the party's youth leader Vinay Mishra, who is being investigated by the CBI and the ED. The two central agencies are probing Mishra in connection with cases related to cattle smuggling and illegal coal mining. The Narendra Modi government is apprehending those who are stealing coal, Shah said at a public meeting at Pandabeswar in Paschim Bardhaman district.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressing a press conference in Malda yesterday urged people not to panic over the worsening COVID-19 situation as the state government is taking "every possible measure" to check the spread of the disease. "Night curfew or lockdown may not be a solution in Bengal, where political pollution needs to be checked first," she said. The chief minister, however, did not say what she was referring to as "political pollution". The raging COVID-19 crisis cast its long shadow in West Bengal, which is in the midst of its long-drawn assembly election.

Assembly elections are being held in Bengal in eight phases from March 27 to April 29. Of these, five phases have concluded. The next phase will take place on April 22. Votes will be counted on May 2.

Ahead of the sixth phase of polling in Bengal, the BJP's star campaigners such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, party president JP Nadda and actor Mithun Chakraborty addressed several rallies in the constituencies, attacking the ruling TMC over corruption charges and promising to build a "Sonar Bangla" (Golden Bengal). On the other hand, TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is the Diamond Harbour MP, attacked the BJP-led central government over fuel price rise.

Altogether 306 contestants including the BJP's national vice president Mukul Roy, senior TMC leaders and ministers Jyotipriya Mallick and Chandrima Bhattacharya, and CPI(M) leader Tanmay Bhattacharya are in the fray in the sixth phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls. The political fate of film director Raj Chakraborty and actress Koushani Mukherjee, who were fielded by the Trinamool Congress, will also be sealed in this phase of the election.

Polling in the sixth phase of the West Bengal Assembly election will be held between 7 am and 6.30 pm at 14,480 polling stations in 17 constituencies in the North 24 Parganas district, nine each in Nadia and Uttar Dinajpur districts and eight in Purba Bardhaman district. There are more than 1.03 crore voters in these 43 constituencies, who are eligible to exercise their franchise. Of those voters, 53.21 lakh are men, 50.65 lakh are women while 256 belong to the third gender. The Election Commission has decided to deploy 1,071 companies of central security forces in the sixth phase to ensure free and fair polling.