Overview
- Following Thursday’s first-phase voting across 152 seats, the Election Commission reported 92.35% turnout, the highest in West Bengal since Independence.
- The Special Intensive Revision removed over 9.1 million names from the rolls, and TMC’s Derek O’Brien says absolute votes were slightly lower than 2021 even as the percentage rose.
- The Election Commission deployed 2,407 companies of central forces totaling more than 240,000 personnel, and officials reported largely peaceful polling with 41 arrests and 571 preventive detentions and no deaths.
- The Calcutta High Court stayed until June 30 an Election Commission–related directive urging police to act against a named ‘troublemakers’ list, after a petition alleged the list mainly targeted TMC workers.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah called the turnout a mandate for change and predicted big BJP gains, TMC leaders projected a strong edge for their party, and the state votes again on April 29 with counting on May 4.