Lok Sabha 2024: Highest rally permissions granted to Bengal
The Election Commission of India (ECI) granted Bengal the highest number of permissions for allies, public meetings and other forms of campaign in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
According to data on the Suvidha portal of the ECI, as published in a report by The Hindu, in the two-and-a-half month-long election campaign, 94,975 applications (of the about 1,19,276 applications) were allowed in the eastern battleground.
This data points to how hotly contested and thus, prestigious a state Bengal has become, especially for All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The data is also interesting for the fact that Bengal elects 42 MPs, compared to Uttar Pradesh’s 80 and Maharashtra’s 48).
About 11 per cent (10.78, to be exact), or 10,245 permissions, were granted for the district of North 24 Parganas alone, which includes the seats of Barasat and Basirhat (which includes the island of Sandeshkhali, the site of alleged rapes and land grabs by the state’s ruling party leaders).
Another interesting fact relates to helicopter and helipad use permissions: 669 of the 890 applications were granted approval, the highest going to the AITC (521), followed by the BJP (124).
