Today is the fifth and biggest phase of polling in Bengal with 45 seats going to election.
Today is the fifth and biggest phase of polling in Bengal - with votes being cast in 45 seats across six districts in the north and south of the state. Bengal has already voted for 135 seats and after today's voting, results for more than half of its 294 seats will be sealed.
In this phase, the fate of some key Trinamool ministers will be decided, including Bratya Basu (Science and Technology Minister), Gautam Deb (Tourism Minister) and Mangalkot MLA Siddiqullah Chowdhury. That of the BJP's Jagannath Sarkar - one of five MPs in this election - will also be sealed, making it a crucial phase for the main rivals in what has been a high-voltage poll campaign.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election the BJP polled over 45 per cent of the votes from these areas - ahead of the Trinamool's 41 per cent. If that voting pattern holds, the opposition party needs only to retain its edge and it is the Trinamool that has to fight back.
In North Bengal 13 seats will vote, including seven in Jalpaiguri district, five in Darjeeling and one in Kalimpong.
The hill seats are expected to see a triangular fight between the BJP and two Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) factions - one led by Benoy Tamang that has always been close to the Trinamool, and the other by Bimal Gurung, who was with the BJP till October before suddenly switching over to the ruling party.
In the past the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland was the main plank for the Bimal Gurung group. Now that it has taken the side of the Trinamool, which is opposed to that, the issue has lost steam.
Locals say the result has been peaceful campaigning and will also, hopefully, mean peaceful polling.
In the plains of Darjeeling the battle for Siliguri is shaping up as a straight fight between CPM veteran Ashok Bhattacharya and Shankar Ghosh, who quit the party to join the BJP in March. It is being labelled as a 'guru-shishya' fight between mentor and protege.
In Jalpaiguri all seven seats are expected to yield tough fights.
In 2016 the Trinamool won all of them, but the BJP led in six of seven assembly segments in the 2019 election. This includes Dabgram Fulbari - Gautam Deb's seat. Mr Deb will face the BJP's Shikha Mitra in what will probably be a closely contested race.
Down south Nadia district promises a neck-and-neck fight between the BJP and the Trinamool. This is where the former has fielded Jagannath Sarkar - from Santipur.
He won his Lok Sabha seat from Ranaghat, where the Matua community is dominant. Most Matuas, originally from Bangladesh, voted for the BJP in 2019 in the hope the controversial CAA would banish question marks over their citizenship.
East Burdwan has eight seats voting, with the most high-profile candidate being minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury. The seats were Trinamool-dominated but BJP has made some inroads.
The BJP has also made inroads in the 16 seats polling in North 24 Parganas district, seats that were the Trinamool's strongholds. Many of the seats here - like Hingalganj and Sandeshkhali - are part of the Sunderbans area that was devastated by Cyclone Amphan.
Complaints of corruption in distribution of compensation by the Trinamool government fuelled the BJP's campaign of 'cut money and tolabaji', and are a major poll issue.
Many of the seats in North 24 Parganas are part of Greater Kolkata - like Dum Dum, Rajarhat New Town and Bidhan Nagar, which is also known as Salt Lake and will see a face-off between former colleagues-turned-foes.
The Trinamool candidate there is Fire Services Minister Sujit Bose. The BJP candidate is his former colleague Sabyasachi Dutta, who quit the Trinamool to join the BJP in October 2019.
After today there will be just 114 seats left in the remaining three phases, which are scheduled for April 22, 26 and 29, with results due May 2.