Polls 2011: East Midnapore records 85.14%

A high 85.14% votes were polled in East Midnapore district today where 75 candidates were in fray for 16 assembly constituencies.

Official sources said 85.14% of the 31,12,563 voters exercised their franchise across 3964 booths in the presence of district police and central paramilitary force personnel manning the booths.

Stray incidents marked the polling with security personnel dismantling a CPI(M) camp for coming up close to a booth in Haldia while 18 men were arrested for moving around different booths in Nandigram, Khejuri and elsewhere in motor cycles, the sources said.

In Panskura, a Trinamool Congress supporter was beaten up, allegedly by CPI(M), for switching camps in recent times.

Besides 8000 state policemen, 194 companies of central paramilitary personnel fanned out across the district days ahead of the polls.

Some of the companies would be kept in the district for some more time in view of the situation in areas like Nandigram, Khejuri, Panskura and Contai, the sources said.