The West Bengal assembly elections have entered a fierce battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) with the first phase concluding on Thursday.
Despite a significant revision of electoral rolls that saw lakhs of names removed, voters turned out in historic numbers, with a record-breaking 92.35% turnout in the 152 constituencies involved.
Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that these were the highest polling percentages recorded in both West Bengal and Tamil Nadu since Independence.
The high engagement has led both the ruling parties and the opposition to claim they are on the path to victory, with the BJP aiming to unseat the TMC after 15 years in power.
However, a large number of people were unable to vote due to a controversial "logical discrepancy" category used during the revision of electoral rolls, with only 139 people cleared by judicial tribunals out of 1.4 million who sought help.
