Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday was poised to sweep Bengal’s violence-scarred rural polls, as the overnight count of ballots gave it an unassailable lead in results declared till now by the State Election Commission.
The TMC has won 34,901 gram panchayat seats, besides leading in 613 seats, according to the SEC as of 4.30pm on Wednesday. In all elections are being held for 63,229 gram panchayat seats.
The ruling party’s nearest rival BJP has won 9,719 seats and is leading in 151 seats.
The CPI(M) has won 2,938 and is leading in 67 seats. The Congress won 2,542 seats and is leading in 66.
The ruling TMC won 6,430 panchayat samiti seats while leading 193 seats. BJP has won 982 and is leading in 53 seats, while CPI(M) has won 176 seats and is leading in 14 others and Congress has won in 266 seats and is leading in 6 seats. Elections were held for 9,728 panchayat samiti seats.
TMC has also won 674 zila parishad seats so far and is leading in 149 others, with this it seems set to repeat its 2018 performance of controlling all the zila parishads, despite marginally better showing by the BJP and CPI(M)-Congress alliance in some districts.
The BJP has in contrast won 21 and is leading in 5 seats. The CPI(M) has won 2 seats, while Congress has won 6 and is leading in 5. In all, there are 928 zila parishad seats.
In Bhangore in South 24 Parganas, three persons including two activists of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) were killed and several others injured in a clash which took place outside a counting booth late Tuesday night, police said on Wednesday.
A 24-year-old Congress workers was beaten to death while several others were injured allegedly by TMC workers in Rampur village in Malda district, police said.
It is claimed that after winning the gram panchayat election in the locality, TMC workers were bursting fire crackers in front of the Congress worker’s house leading to a clash.
The elections are being seen by all parties as an indicator of which way the wind will blow in the 2024 parliamentary elections from this part of the country.
The Trinamool Congress termed its win as "a victory of the people" in a tweet and followed it up by blaming the violence which has claimed some 11 of the 15 who died on election day from among its workers on the opposition. "The fire of violence, ignited by the opposition parties … has continued till the tail end of the panchayat elections".
It also claimed that a TMC party worker from South 24 Parganas district’s Chandpasha village was hacked to death by "BJP goons".
The violence which rocked the panchayat polls, has seen the number of deaths in poll-related incidents since the announcement of elections mount to 36, with the ruling party suffering nearly 60 per cent of the deaths.
Allegations of vote tampering and violence by various parties forced the SEC to order re-polling in 696 seats on Monday, which passed more or less peacefully. Intervention by the Calcutta High Court had seen the deployment of central police forces on both election and counting days.
Though Bengal has a long history of violent rural polls with 40 people killed in one single day of polling during the 2003 panchayat elections, this year’s violence which was covered extensively by the media focused national attention on it.
Governor CV Ananda Bose who had rushed to Delhi to give a report on the violence told newspersons Tuesday "Political parties should realise elections are not grounds to examine one's physical strength".
“Now, after the verdict of the people, Governor Bose should resign and get out of Bengal. He has acted as agent of BJP, provoked opposition by unethical ways, insulted Bengal. He has no right to continue as Governor,” tweeted TMC leader Kunal Ghosh.
State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the election has already been reduced to a farce.
“According to our apprehension, violence, nexus between the ruling party, police, and the state election commission and unprecedented violence has led to the death of more than 40 persons. After the counting, post-poll violence will be unleashed," he said.
“Murder of democracy in West Bengal under the TMC govt. Over 60 dead & 100s injured in the local body elections. Strongly condemn. Strengthen popular resistance to save democracy in Bengal & in India,” tweeted CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury.
BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad who arrived on Wednesday here leading a fact-finding team, said, "Violence and killings during rural polls are unacceptable. So many people have been killed; why have so many people had to die in this election? We will visit the violence-hit areas of north and south Bengal.
Later, we will submit our report to our national president JP Nadda”.
Counting of votes for the three-tier panchayat polls to nearly 74,000 seats which besides the gram panchayat seats, also includes 9,730 panchayat samiti seats and 928 zilla parishad seats, began at 8 am on Tuesday largely peacefully amid tight security, officials said.
Vote counting is on at 339 venues spread across 22 districts and is likely to carry over to Wednesday.
The maximum number of counting centres is in South 24 Parganas at 28, while the minimum is in Kalimpong at four. Some northern districts are also facing inclement weather.
"Counting which began at 8 am yesterday continued overnight and will be completed today" an SEC official said Wednesday.
In Darjeeling hills, out of the 598 seats in Darjeeling and 281 in Kalimpong, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) was leading in many areas and looks likely to be the new numero uno in the Bengal hill districts.
All the counting venues are manned by armed state police personnel and central forces, with prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC being imposed outside the venue to avoid any untoward incidents. There are a total of 767 strong rooms across 22 districts.
A total of 5.67 crore people living in the state's rural areas were eligible to decide the fate of 2.06 lakh candidates in 73,887 seats of the three-tier-panchayat system.
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