West Bengal Panchayat Polls: BJP state chief holds ‘dharna’

As reported by ANI, as reported This action was taken in response to the alleged manipulation of results in the Panchayat polls, counting for which had commenced earlier in the day. Majumdar, as the state BJP chief, announced his intention to seek legal remedies to address this matter.

“Despite our candidates winning in the elections…the results are being fabricated. The ruling party has brought criminals inside the counting centre to help their candidates win by rigging the counting. The Block Development Officer (BDO) is biased and is an agent of TMC,” Majumdar said while speaking to reporters outside the counting center.

“I am here to meet the BDO, but he is not here…We will go for legal action,” he added.

The counting of votes for the 63,229 Gram Panchayat seats in West Bengal commenced at 8 am on Tuesday, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) consistently leading the tally since the beginning. As the counting process progressed, the TMC maintained its initial advantage in the results.

According to the State Election Commission (SEC) data as of 10.30 pm on Tuesday, the TMC emerged victorious in 28,985 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 7,764 seats. The Congress party managed to secure 2,022 seats thus far. In terms of leading positions, the TMC was ahead in 1,540 panchayat seats, while the BJP led in 417 seats.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has emerged victorious in 2,409 seats and is leading in 260 seats in the West Bengal panchayat polls. Other political parties have secured 725 seats and are leading in 23 seats. Additionally, independent candidates, including TMC rebels, have won 1,656 seats and are leading in 104 seats.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticized the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the violence that occurred during the panchayat polls, labeling it as “state-sponsored” violence. The BJP claimed that at least 45 individuals lost their lives in the clashes.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, while addressing a press conference said that these ‘killings’ are “institutional murder”.

He further said that the party vehemently condemns the poll violence and “murder of democracy” in West Bengal. “Nirmam Bandyopadhyay (ruthless Mamata Banerjee), who used to talk ‘maa, maati, manush’, is being a mute spectator,” he added. Patra further lashed out at other parties accusing them to be ‘silent’ over the issue.

“Where is Rahul ji, there is no mention of your ‘Mohabbat Ki Dukan’, you want to open the shop of love all over India, today you are not talking about it because the mega mall of your aspirations is open there (West Bengal), he said.

The elections took place on July 8 in rural areas of West Bengal, with a substantial participation of approximately 5.67 crore voters. The fate of 2.06 lakh candidates contesting for 73,887 seats was decided during the elections.

However, the voting day was marred by widespread violence, incidents of ballot paper looting, and rigging. There were numerous reports of booth capturing, ballot box damage, and assaults on presiding officers from various districts, including Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, and Nadia.

There were additional reports of incidents such as ballot boxes being set on fire and clashes between political parties at various locations during the elections.

Consequently, re-polling took place in 697 booths across 22 Zilla Parishads, 9,730 Panchayat Samitis, and 63,239 Gram Panchayat seats in 19 districts of West Bengal. The re-polling process was conducted under the monitoring of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), and fortunately, there were no reports of violence during this phase.

(With inputs from ANI)

Updated: 12 Jul 2023, 07:54 AM IST