Campaigning ends for Bengal rural polls

Kolkata: Public meetings, roadshows and door-to-door visits marked the intense campaigning for the West Bengal panchayat elections that ended on Thursday evening.

Around 5.67 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in the three-tier panchayat polls in the state on July 8 for nearly 74,000 seats in zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.

Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari were part of the high-voltage campaigning across the state over the last few weeks.

Several people have also been killed and many injured in violence in the run-up to the polls.

Governor C V Ananda bose has himself visited several violence-hit areas of Bhangar, Canning in South 24 Parganas district, Dinhata in Cooch Behar district and Basanti in North 24 Parganas.

Nearly 65,000 active central police personnel and 70,000 state police personnel will be deployed for the rural polls, officials said.