West Bengal General Elections 2024 complete schedule: Know dates, seats and parties

Elections 2024: West Bengal to vote in all seven phases

The Election Commission on Saturday announced the polling dates for the Lok Sabha elections in all states and Union Territories. Voting for the first phase will begin on April 19 and the seventh phase will end on June 1. Counting will take place on June 4. West Bengal has sent 42 members to the Lok Sabha, which will vote in all seven phases. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the other two states that will go to polls in all seven phases.

Here is the detailed schedule for West Bengal Lok Sabha:

Phase 1 (April 19): Voters in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri will elect their candidates on April 19. Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri are reserved for SC candidates while Alipurduar is reserved for ST.

Phase 2 (April 26): The northern region of Bengal will go to the second phase of voting on April 26 in Darjeeling, Raiganj and Baleghat seats.

Phase 3 (May 7): In the third phase on May 7, Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Jangipur and Murshidabad will go to polls.

Phase 4 (May 13): There will be up to eight seats in the fourth phase. These constituencies are Baharampur, Krishna Nagar, Ranaghat, Badhamanpurba, Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum. Among them, Ranaghat, Bolpur and Bardhaman Purba are reserved for SC.

Phase 5 (May 20): Bengal’s industrial belt will go to polls in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. These seats are Bangaon, Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Srerampur, Hooghly and Arambagh. Bangaon and Arambagh are reserved for SC candidates.

Phase 6 (May 25): Western districts of West Bengal – Tamluk, Kanti, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur – will be conducted in the penultimate phase vote. Jhargram is reserved for ST while Bishnupur is reserved for SC.

Phase 7 (June 1): Arguably the most important phase, it will include Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, and its suburbs. Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbor, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin and Kolkata Uttar will also go to the final phase of voting on June 1. Among them, Jaynagar and Mathurapur are reserved for SC.

West Bengal witnessed a two-way fight in 2019, with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress winning 22 of the 42 seats while the BJP secured 18 seats. The other two seats were won by the Congress party.