April 29: For Round 4 and 5, the Election Commission will assign additional poll personnel to reduce the rush in booths that led to serpentine queues and voting till late in the evening in the initial phases.

Deputy election commissioner R. Balakrishnan said in Bolpur this afternoon: “We’ve noticed that the rush in the booths is enormous twice during a polling day, in the morning and after lunch. To handle the rush during these times, we will assign personnel to assist polling officers.”

The additional officers will share responsibilities such as verifying voters’ identity and applying ink on their forefingers. “This system will ensure smoother and faster polling, which is our focus this time,” Balakrishnan said.

The first three phases saw turnouts of up to 90 per cent in several booths and voting, in some cases, continued till 10 at night.

In Calcutta, deputy election commissioner Anand Kumar was seen frantically calling for more personnel from booths in Salt Lake and Behala to ease the rush on Thursday.

In Falta, the paramilitary wielded the baton on villagers the same day because they refused to leave polling stations without voting around 8.30 pm. A clash followed.

Balakrishnan today said officials would also be deployed to make rounds of crowded booths around the closing time and remind the presiding officers that they cannot compromise on procedure.

The additional personnel will be deployed from the reserve pool, members of which generally head home once polling begins.

Forty-five observers from north Bengal will move into Burdwan, Murshidabad and Birbhum by May 2.

Balakrishnan went to Santiniketan in a helicopter along with chief electoral officer Debashis Sen around 2 pm. After a meeting with the Birbhum observers and the district administration, he left for Durgapur around 4:30.

He was in Behrampore in the evening. Birbhum, Burdwan and Murshidabad are going to the polls on Wednesday.