Trinamool all set to sweep West Bengal Panchayat polls
BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY HAS EMERGED A DISTANT SECOND IN ALMOST ALL THE DISTRICTS
The ruling Trinamool Congress looked set for a resounding victory in rural West Bengal after nearly eight hours of counting of votes in the threetier state Panchayat elections, with control of over 80 per cent of the Gram Panchayat seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had emerged a distant second in almost all the districts.
According to the latest trend, Trinamool won in 20 out of 825 Zilla Parishad seats and was comfortably leading in another 22, while the opposition parties drew a blank.
The state ruling party also came out victorious in at least 160 out of 6,125 Panchayat Samiti seats and were leading in another 173 constituencies, the latest poll result data released by the State Election Commission (SEC) said.
The BJP and the left managed to bag one Panchayat Samiti seats each.
The BJP managed to move ahead or win a section of Panchayat seats, especially in Murshidabad and Jhargram districts, while the Left and Congress were pushed to margins.
The Trinamool Congress leadership, however, refused to celebrate as a lot of counting still remained.
“It is a massive victory for Trinamool. The opposition thought giving outside support to Independent candidates would reap benefits for them. It has been proved wrong as all of them have been wiped clean. People voted for Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee,” West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick said.
Incidents of violence
Sporadic incidents of violence over the election results were reported from certain districts like Nadia where a group of miscreants allegedly ran away with ballot boxes. The counting of votes was halted for almost three hours in Nadia’s Majhdia after allegations of tampering with the ballot papers were received.
“There are some reports of unrest in the districts but the concerned administration has already taken action. There are no reports of major violence from anywhere,” SEC Secretary Nilanjan Shandilya told IANS.
In Birbhum, BJP and Trinamool Congress activists clashed with each other outside a counting station. The police had to resort to baton charge to disperse the mob.
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 polling day.