An electorate of over 58 lakh is eligible to decide the fate of 170 candidates. Maintaining a tight security cover, the poll panel has deployed 361 companies of central forces assisted by a contingent of 12,000 state police personnel.
For the first time since Independence, residents of border enclaves in Coochbehar will be able to exercise their franchise, thanks to the formal inclusion of enclaves in the Indian territory last year.
Altogether 9,776 erstwhile enclave dwellers, including 567 who have opted for India from the former Indian enclaves -- now part of Bangladesh -- are registered as electors. They are Aspread across five constituencies -- Dinhata (5,486 voters), Mekhliganj (988), Sitai (1,396), Sitalkuchi (1,898) and Tufanganj (8).
In East Midnapore, all eyes are on Nandigram, where a peasants agitation in 2006-07 against the erstwhile Left Front government's bid to acquire farmland for a chemical hub and special economic zone had triggered police firing that resulted in 14 deaths.
Trinamool Congress, which had won all 16 seats in East Midnapore district in 2011, has now fielded its Tamluk MP Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram, who is pitted against CPI's Abdul Kabir Sheikh supported by the Congress-Left alliance.
Among other major candidates are state minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar (Mahisadal), Udayan Guha (Dinhata) -- both from Trinamool and Paresh Chandra Adhikary (Mekhliganj) of the AIFB.