Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah campaigned energetically for their Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal, encouraging defections from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, whose firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee has been chief minister since 2011. India's fourth most populous state, with 90 million people, was for decades a bastion of communism, and registered a voter turnout of nearly 80% in Saturday's first phase of voting. It has never won power in West Bengal, and to do well in the state would send a formidable national signal. Assam's third and final phase of voting is on April 6. (Reporting by Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata and Zarir Hussain in Guwahati; Additional reporting by Rupak De Chowdhuri in Purulia; Writing by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: The Star March 27, 2021 07:47 UTC