Over one crore voters in West Bengal will decide the political fate of 306 candidates on Thursday, when 43 assembly constituencies go to polls in the sixth phase, amid a raging second wave of Covid-19. Security measures have been heightened in view of the violence in the previous phases, particularly the death of five people in Cooch Behar in the fourth phase of polling on April 10, an Election Commission official said.

 The poll panel has decided to deploy at least 1,071 companies of central forces in the sixth phase to ensure free and fair voting, he said. It will also put in place measures to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols during the voting process, the official said.

West Bengal on Tuesday registered its highest single-day spike of 9,819 new COVID-19 cases, which took the tally to 6,78,172, and at least 46 more people succumbed to the infection, pushing the toll to 10,652. Both the TMC and the BJP have pitched hard to gain the confidence of Matuas in most of the 17 assembly segments going to polls in this phase in North 24 Parganas district and some of the nine seats in Nadia.

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