Bengal polls phase five: BJP booth worker dies in Kamarhati, EC seeks report

NORTH 24 PARGANAS: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) polling agent died inside a booth in Kamarhati while voting was underway for the fifth phase of West Bengal Assembly polls on Saturday.

"His name is Abhijeet Samanta. Nobody helped him, there is no facility for treatment here," the brother of the deceased BJP polling agent told ANI.

Another BJP worker said, "We do not know what exactly happened as we are not allowed in a radius of 200 metres. I went with water after seeing him lying on the ground."

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has sought a report over the sudden death of the BJP polling agent at booth number 107 in Kamarhati on Saturday.

Voting for the fifth phase of West Bengal assembly polls began at 7 am on Saturday amid tight security.

Polling is underway in a total of 45 constituencies covering the districts of Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and a segment of Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman in the fifth phase. A total of 319 candidates, including 39 women are in the fray in Phase-V.

There are 15,789 polling stations designated for this phase. The security for this phase has been beefed up with the deployment of 1,071 companies of central forces for ensuring a peaceful election.

The voting for the sixth phase will be held on April 22.