Kolkata:
After a spate of violence in the third and fourth phase of the panchayat polls in West Bengal, the voters will exercise their franchise in the fifth and last phase today.
Almost 65 lakh people will cast their vote in four districts - North and South Dinajpur, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri. The number of seats being contested today is 8342.
What is of concern is, out of those 8000 booths, about 5423 are either sensitive or highly sensitive. This is a result of the fact that votes are highly polarised in the four districts.
The Congress and CPM dominate two districts each and the Trinamool is trying very hard to make inroads.
During the voting for fourth phase of panchayat elections on Monday, seven people were killed - three in Murshidabad, two in Birbhum and one each in Malda and Nadia.
Most of the clashes that took place on Monday were between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM).
Poll violence continued even a day after the elections were held in these districts, leaving four people dead. Two Congress workers and another CPM worker were killed in sporadic incidents of violence in Murshidabad district while the father of an Independent candidate succumbed to his injuries in Birbhum district.