NEW DELHI: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has lauded 73% polling with advantage BJP in West Bengal. Expressing optimism over high voter turnout in all the 7 Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal in phase 5, Dr Jitendra Singh who was assigned the BJP election responsibility for phase 5 in the State, said that even though the national average percentage was around 57.57%, West Bengal recorded the highest percentage at 73% polling with clear advantage for BJP. Briefing the media about yesterday’s polling patterns in West Bengal, Dr Jitendra Singh said, in spite of the extreme summer heat, each of the 7 constituencies recorded unusually high turnout. Giving details, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the highest polling of 76.90% was recorded at Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency. This was followed by Bongaon and Barrackpore constituencies, which recorded 75.73% and 68.83% voter turnout respectively. The Hooghly constituency, which was won by BJP in 2019 also recorded a higher voting of 74.17%. Sreerampore recorded polling of 71.18% voter turnout while the important constituency of Howrah recorded 68.84%. He said, an unusually high voter turnout which was not so much expected was seen in Uluberia which recorded 74.50% polling. Justifying his claim of advantage to BJP with the support of statistics and figures, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Bongaon, Barrackpore, and Hooghly were already with BJP and would again return to BJP. He said, TMC had tried to create some problems in Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency but the perseverance of our candidate and the polling agents managed to deal with it very discreetly. Howrah, he said, which we lost last time will be in BJP’s kitty this time and here we have a new candidate who is a Physician and a former Mayor. Sreerampore, he said, was lost by BJP by an extremely small margin of just 1,000 votes in 2019, but we will win it comfortably this time. About Uluberia, he said, the contest is going to be tough with TMC but we might have an edge. All in all, Dr Jitendra Singh said, BJP hopes to win all the 7 seats to which the polling happened in phase 5 yesterday and we are absolutely confident about 6 seats out of these seven. Dr Jitendra Singh gave full credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had personally campaigned in all these constituencies and held mammoth public rallies. In fact, he recalled some of the constituencies like Aramabagh had the privilege of hosting two public rallies by Prime Minister Modi, one after the election notification and another one just before that. He said, PM Modi’s public rally at Howrah recorded one of the highest public gatherings in recent history and so also was the case in other constituencies like Barrackpore. Attributing huge voter turnout and support to BJP as a mark of endorsement by the people of West Bengal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy and schemes, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this is a reiteration of the journey of West Bengal as a part of the “Viksit Bharat” journey led by PM Modi. He also thanked people of all the seven constituencies for having turned out in such high numbers to reiterate their support for PM Modi
