About 16 per cent polling was recorded till 9 am in West Bengal on Tuesday in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Two constituencies each in Malda and Murshidabad districts went to polls with Jangipur recording the highest turnout of 16.95 per cent, followed by Maldaha Dakshin (16.33 per cent), Maldaha Uttar (15.33 per cent) and Murshidabad (14.87 per cent).

According to the Election Commission (EC), 182 complaints have been lodged with the West Bengal chief electoral officer. Polling has been peaceful so far with one or two isolated incidents of violence being reported.

“Polling is more or less peaceful so far. About 15.85 per cent average turnout in four constituencies has been recorded till 9 am,” said an EC official.

At Jangipur, a scuffle broke out between BJP candidate Dhananjay Ghosh and Trinamool Congress (TMC) block president Goutam Ghosh with the former alleging the latter was intimidating voters outside a polling station. “When I protested, he tried to overpower me. This is the kind of politics the TMC wants on the day of polling so that their candidate wins the election,” said Ghosh, who has also lodged a complaint against the TMC leader with the poll panel.

For the third phase of polling in Bengal, the EC has deployed 334 companies of central forces along with 13,600 state police personnel, to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling.

About 73,37,651 voters, including 36,12,395 women and 154 belonging to the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise across 7,360 polling stations in the four parliamentary constituencies of Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin, Murshidabad and Jangipur.