TMC dominates Bengal rural polls, bags 28,985 seats

Kolkata: TMC looks set to sweep the violence-scarred rural polls keeping intact the mandate it won two years back during the assembly polls by taking an early but seemingly unassailable lead in results declared till now by the State Election Commission.

The ruling TMC has won in 28,985 gram panchayat seats out of the seats declared, besides leading in 3,002 seats, according to the SEC as of 10.30 pm.

Its nearest rival BJP has won 3,790 seats and is leading in 802 seats. In all elections are being held for 63,229 gram panchayat seats.

The Left Front has won 1,365 seat, of which the CPI(M) alone has won 1,206. The Left is currently leading in 621 seats. The Congress won 886 seats and is leading in 256. Other parties which included the newly formed ISF won 937 seats and led in 190 seats, while independents which included TMC rebels won 418 seats and led in 73 seats.

TMC has also won all 18 Zila Parishad results declared so far and is leading in 30 others while CPI(M) is leading in one. In all, there are 928 Zila Parishad seats.

"The results reflect the faith of people in TMC and the state government. It also shows that people have rejected the divisive politics of the BJP and the negative politics of the Congress and CPI (M)," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

It acts as an indicator which way the wind will blow in the 2024 parliamentary elections from this part of the country. The violence which rocked the panchayat polls held on Saturday has claimed at least 15 lives with 11 of them from the ruling TMC.

Since elections were announced last month, the number of people who died in poll-related incidents has been 33, with the ruling party suf fering 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. A voter turnout of 80.71 per cent was recorded on Saturday, whereas a vote percentage of 69.85 was recorded till 5 pm in 696 booths across West Bengal, where re-polling was held on Monday.

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.

BJP claims at least 45 killed in panchayat polls, terms Mamata 'ruthless

The BJP Tuesday slammed the Trinamool Congress government over the "state-sponsored" violence during the West Bengal panchayat polls, terming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee "ruthless" and claiming at least 45 people have died in the clashes.

Violence rocked the July 8 rural polls, leaving 15 dead while ballot boxes were vandalised, ballot papers burnt and bombs thrown at rivals in several places.

Repolling was held on Monday in 696 booths across 19 districts where voting was declared void amid allegations of ballot box tampering and violence.

As counting began on Tuesday and initial trends started pouring in, the BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed the ruling TMC's "dadagiri politics" was on even on the day of ballot counting.

The BJP's counting agents and that of other opposition parties were being stopped from visiting the counting centres, he claimed at a press conference in the national capital and termed the poll violence "unprecedented". (PTI)