Polling ended in the second phase of the state Assembly elections on Sunday with 79.70% of the electorate showing up to vote. Earlier in the day, a clash between workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party left eight people injured in Dumrut village in West Bengal's Birbhum district. Police said three workers from either party were arrested following the clash. The BJP claimed that all the eight injured people were their supporters, reported PTI.

Fifty-six seats were up for grabs in the phase, as polling began at 7 am amid tight security. A total of 383 candidates were contesting seats in this phase, with more than 1.2 crore people voting. The phase was spread across six north Bengal districts – Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda – and Birbhum in south Bengal.

Seven constituencies in Birbhum were classified as affected by left-wing extremism, where polling was held only till 4 pm, as against the usual 6 pm deadline. Election Commission officials told PTI that multi-tier security arrangements had been made in these areas. The EC had also identified 2,909 polling stations out of more than 13,600 as vulnerable to violence, most of which were in Malda and Uttar Dinajpur.

West Bengal is voting in six phases, with the result due on May 19.