Bengal panchayat polls: TMC leading on 1208 seats, BJP emerges second

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KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC)  has till now won 110 seats and is leading on 1,208 seats in the West Bengal Panchayat election.

While on the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won four seats and is leading on 81, followed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) which has won three seats and is ahead on 58 seats.

The TMC supporters are already celebrating their party’s massive lead in the panchayat election, reports ANI.

The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged a distant second as it managed to go ahead or win a section of panchayat seats in a few places, while the Left and Congress heavily struggled to put up a fight.

However, the Trinamool Congress leadership refused to celebrate as a lot of counting still remained.

“It is a good trend for us. We have said before that the people are with us. But I think it too early to comment as the counting for Panchayat Samiti seats are yet to be done,” party’s Secretary General Partha Chatterjee told IANS.

Forty mobile phones have been seized form a counting centre in Jalpaiguri, ANI reported.

Sporadic incidents of unrest over the election results were reported from certain districts like Nadia where a group of miscreants allegedly ran away with ballot boxes.

The polling for Bengal panchayat polls took place on Monday amid reports of widespread violence and clashes between rival political groups that led to repolling in 573 booths in 19 of the 20 districts on Wednesday.

According to the state administration, 12 people lost their lives on the polling day among which death of six people were confirmed to be due to poll violence.

However, opposition political parties and a section of the media claimed the death toll on the polling day had gone up to 21, while five more people died on the next day.

Initially, voting for the rural bodies was to be held on May 1, 3 and 5 but as the nomination process started in April, it was rescheduled to May 14 by the State Election Commission (SEC) following a Calcutta High Court order to extend the nomination deadline and announce a fresh polling date.

Statistics reveal that of the total 58,692 seats in the three tiers of the rural local bodies, 20,076 seats, or 34.2 per cent, have been decided uncontested, with the Trinamool bagging a whopping proportion of these seats.

These include 16,814 of the total 48,650 gram Panchayats seats, 3,059 of the 9,217 Panchayat Samiti seats and 203 of the 825 Zila Parishad seats.

The Supreme Court has now asked the SEC not to issue winning certificates in these seats.