Balloting begins in West Bengal

Kolkata, May 7 (IANS) Balloting in West Bengal for six Lok Sabha seats and by-poll for one assembly seat began Wednesday 7 a.m., officials said.

As many as 72 candidates are in the fray for the parliamentary seats. Four candidates are fighting in the by-poll for the Kotulpur assembly seat.

Incumbent MP from Jhargam, Pulin Bihari Baske, of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is pitted against Uma Saren of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

In Medinipur, Communist Party of India have fielded incumbent MP Prabodh Panda against Sandhya Roy of Trinamool, Prabhakar Tewari of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bimal Kumar Raj of the Congress.

In Bankura, incumbent MP and CPI-M candidate Acharia Basudeb is fighting it out against Trinamool candidate and former Bollywood actress Moon Moon Sen, daughter of veteran actress late Suchitra Sen.

In Asansol, the BJP has fielded Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo against incumbent MP Bansa Gopal Choudhury of the CPI-M, Dola Sen of Trinamool and Indrani Mishra of the Congress.