Overview
- Voters in Tamil Nadu and in 152 West Bengal constituencies cast ballots Thursday, with officials and media reporting very high participation across both states.
- West Bengal’s polling saw Electronic Voting Machine failures at multiple booths and crude bomb attacks in Murshidabad’s Nowda, prompting hundreds of complaints and long waits in the heat as some voters left without voting.
- The Election Commission mounted a large security and monitoring push that included roughly 2,450 companies of central forces, 100% booth webcasting with AI alerts, two-tier voter checks, and enforcement drives that recovered more than Rs 1,072 crore in alleged inducements.
- Ahead of voting, a Special Intensive Revision of the rolls removed tens of lakhs of names, with large deletions reported in Murshidabad and Malda; the TMC says the cuts were political, which the BJP and the poll body deny, and tribunals restored some voters through supplementary lists.
- West Bengal’s second phase is set for April 29 and counting in both states is scheduled for May 4, setting up an early read on whether the TMC’s bid for a fourth term holds against the BJP’s push for gains.