The campaigning drums Monday fell silent for the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal entailing nine seats spread across four districts of the state's southern part.
Political bigwigs like Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, his senior party colleague L.K. Advani, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI-M politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee hit the campaign trail raising the political heat as the Saradha chit fund scam continued to be the talking point.
The four major parties - Banerjee's Trinamool, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Congress and the BJP are contesting all the seats which include Uluberia, Howrah (Howrah district), Sreerampur, Hooghly, Arambagh (Hooghly), Bolpur, Birbhum (Birbhum), Bardhaman Purba and Bardhaman-Durgapur (Burdwan).
More than 1.38 crore voters across 17,330 polling stations would decide the fate of 87 candidates including the likes of Bollywood music composer Bappi Lahiri from Sreerampur, famed Bengali actor George Baker (Howrah) and journalist turned politician Chandan Mitra (Hooghly), all contesting the polls on BJP ticket.
Former India soccer captain Prasun Banerjee is in the fray from Howrah for Trinamool while party's prominent Muslim face Sultan Ahmed is recontesting from Uluberia.