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Rural Bengal has begun voting in the first phase of the three phases Panchayat polls from Sunday, May 11, 2008. Five districts of West Bengal will go to polls in the first phase of Panchayat elections. The districts are Paschim Medinipur, Bankura, Purba, Purulia and Bardhaman. However all eyes are set on Nandigram which has brought the Left Front government under attack for failing to contain violence in the region over the governments industrialization policy.
Ashoke Mohan Chakraborty, State Home Secretary has revealed that about 28,000 security personnel have been deployed for the polls, of which eighty percent are armed. In 260 sensitive areas in Paschim Medinipur, polling personnel were asked to reach the polling booths early on Sunday morning as a precautionary measure. The stakes in Nandigram are however very high for both the participants, the CPI (M) as well as the Trinamool Congress led Bhumi Ucched Patirodh Committee (BUPC). The latter has been opposing acquisition of farmland by the state government for industrialization.
