Panchayat polls Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress sweeps Bengal Panchayat elections, BJP ranks distant second
Kolkata/IBNS: After days of sporadic violence, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress swept the state's all three-tier Panchayat elections as results kept pouring in from several districts till late Tuesday night amid tight security of central forces and the state police.
The TMC won the violence-scarred rural polls by bagging victory in 28,985 gram panchayat seats, besides leading in 1,540 seats, as per the State Election Commission as of 10.30 pm on Tuesday.
The party's nearest rival-Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 7,764 seats and is leading in 417 seats.
The Left Front has won 2,468 seats, of which the CPI(M) alone has won 2,409. The Left, which is in third place, is currently leading in 260 seats.
The Congress won 2,022 seats and is leading in 139. Other parties won 725 seats and led in 23 seats, while independents which included TMC rebels won 1,656 seats and led in 104 seats.
The ruling regime is dominant in both Panchayat Samiti and the Zilla Parishad elections as well.
Saturday's polling was marked by violence in multiple booths, in which a total of 15 people died.
The repolling in 696 booths on Monday was held amid allegations of ballot box tampering.
On Monday, four more persons were reported dead, taking the toll of political violence to 42 since June 8, when the three-tier local body polls were announced.
Allegations of vote tampering had marred the panchayat elections, forcing the SEC headed by Rajiva Sinha to order a repoll in affected booths in all but three districts of Bengal.
This morning, crude bombs went off in several places and the police resorted to lathicharge in Howrah to control crowds.
The counting was held amid strict security with armed state police personnel and central forces stationed at the counting centres, and prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC being imposed outside the venue to avoid any untoward incidents.
The BJP Tuesday slammed the Trinamool Congress government over the "state-sponsored" violence, terming chief minister Mamata Banerjee “ruthless” and claiming at least 45 people have died in the clashes.
The saffron party, in a release, said it has nominated a four-member fact-finding committee to visit the violence-affected areas in West Bengal. The panel members include MP and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and MP Dr Satyapal Singh.
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