Night, river patrolling for 4th phase of Bengal polls

The Election Commission has launched night as well as riverine patrolling in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts where polling will take place tomorrow in the fourth phase, an official said yesterday.“Special arrangements for the fourth phase have been made. In addition to day patrolling, arrangements for night patrolling have been made as well, which started on Friday,” Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dibyendu Sarkar said.He said a “considerable contingent of forces (mostly central) will be deployed on the instructions of observers across the districts, including in vulnerable areas.“In addition to land patrolling, riverine patrolling has been arranged,” Sarkar said.Meanwhile, campaigning came to an end yesterday for the fourth phase of the assembly elections involving 49 seats in the two districts.With rallies, road shows, street corner meetings and last-minute door-to-door contact with voters, canvassing reached a high level over the past few of days, before coming to an end at 6pm yesterday.Thirty-three of the constituencies are in North 24 Parganas, and 16 in Howrah.Star campaigners who hit the canvassing trail for this phase included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPM’s state secretary Surjyakanta Mishra.Among the major candidates are state ministers and Trinamool contestants Amit Mitra, Arup Roy, Upendranath Biswas, Jyotipriyo Mallick, CPM nominees Asim Dasgupta, Nepaldeb Bhattacharya and Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Congress leader Arunava Ghosh and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s R K Handa and Shamik Bhattacharya.Saradha-scam accused Madam Mitra, now in custody, is also in the fray from Kamarhati constituency on a Trinamool ticket.Former India footballer Dipendu Biswas, retired international cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla and late Board of Control for Cricket India president Jagmohan Dalmiya’s daughter Baishali Dalmiya are also contesting the election on Trinamool tickets.Addressing successive rallies in Shyampur in Howrah district and Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district, the Congress vice president came down heavily on Banerjee over corruption and unemployment, and also ridiculed Modi›s criticism of her, reminding the people that the Trinamool Congress and the BJP had a past alliance in the state.Gandhi also accused both Modi and Mamata of being  “anti-poor.”“When Modi comes to Bengal, he speaks against Mamata but back in Delhi he asks his press friends not to write anything against the Trinamool and even asks them to support Mamata. And don’t forget Mamata had supported the BJP,” said Gandhi.Attacking Banerjee for not keeping the “big promises” she had made before the 2011 assembly polls, Gandhi said: “She had declared she would usher in ‘paribortan’ (change). But five years down the line, there has been no change in the state.”The Congress leader said jute industries which provided jobs to millions have now closed down one after the other, while 50,000 people who used to work in brick kilns are now unemployed.Comparing Banerjee with Modi, he said both had the habit of making false promises.“Modi promised two crore jobs. Mamata ji promised 70 lakh jobs in Bengal. But has Modi ji, Mamata ji given employment to a single person? No.”“Modi doles out sops and incentives to the rich corporate, brings out schemes so that their black money can be legalised. But he does not have a single rupee to give to the common people who are reeling under price rise.“Neither Modi nor Mamata can hear the desperate cries of the farmers, the wails of the poor, they can’t see the frustration of the jobless youth,” Gandhi said.He said if the Congress-Left coalition comes to power, it would focus on “education, employment and healthcare, three things every Indians wants.”Gandhi said that earlier people used to come to West Bengal to look for jobs, but now the youth have to venture out to other states and even to the Middle East in search of employment.