Security personnel boarding an anti-landmine vehicle to reach a sensitive polling booth in a remote forest village of Kendishole, about south-west of Kolkata, yesterday.

Kolkata: Three Maoist-affected southern districts of West Bengal go to the polls today amid a heavy security cover in the first of the five-phase assembly elections in the state. The rebels have called for a poll boycott.

The first phase of the elections would witness the battle for ballot in 45 constituencies of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura to decide the fate of 227 candidates. The West Bengal assembly has 294 seats.

In West Midnapore, 250 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed and the other two districts have over 150 companies deployed for the polls.

West Midnapore has 21 seats, followed by 13 in Bankura and 11 in Purulia. The number of voters in the three districts is 6.8 million. A total of 7,911 polling booths have been set up.

Medinipur in West Midnapore is the largest constituency with 183,015 voters.

While the state administration was making all efforts, including use of helicopters, to ensure peaceful polls and instil confidence among voters, all eyes would be on the eight Maoist-violence wracked seats of Binpur, Salbani and Garbeta West in West Midnapore, Banduan in Purulia and Ranibandh, Raipur, Simlapal and Sarenga in Bankura districts.

"We have started helicopter sorties from today (Sunday) and all our forces have reached the areas to instil confidence among people. We will take prompt action in case of any trouble," said Deputy Election Commissioner Ananth Kumar.

The helicopters are to be used for rapid deployment of security forces as road movement has slowed down due to fear of landmines laid by the insurgents.

Keshpur in West Midnapore, where Rameswar Dolui is the CPM candidate, is another assembly seat under the scanner because of a history of political violence in the area. Raids were conducted recently at the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) party office there at the behest of the Election Commission.

The Trinamool Congress candidate Ashish Pramanik was arrested recently for beating up a rival member.

Some of the prominent seats going to the polls Monday are Narayangarh, Datan and Nandanpur in West Midnapore.

For the first two seats, state ministers Surya Kanta Mishra (health) and Nandagopal Bhattacharya (minor irrigation) are in the field. Nandanpur would test the electoral luck of ace swimmer Bula Chowdhury who is also fighting on the CPM ticket.

Both Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, along with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley, and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya campaigned in various areas of the three districts.

Congress leaders and union ministers like Pranab Mukherjee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi also campaigned.

Meanwhile, barely 48 hours before the polls, the Election Commission decided to double the number of poll observers in over 80 percent of the 45 seats.

Thirty-seven additional observers are being sent to the three districts, which already have 57 observers — one general observer in each of the 45 seats and 12 expenditure observers who will monitor activities of the police on the day of polling.

The five-phase assembly elections are being held on April 17, 22, 27 and May 2 and 8. The total electorate in West Bengal is 48.9 million.