West Bengal’s Panchayat polls came to a bloody end as 12 people died, bombs exploded and all parties levelled allegations of strong-arm tactics against their rivals on Saturday.
AMN / WEB DESK
As least eleven people were killed in election-related violence in West Bengal since midnight as voting was underway for the three-tier panchayat polls in the state on Saturday. Officials said, among those killed were six TMC members, and one worker each of the BJP, CPI(M), Congress, and ISF, and another person whose political identity could not be known.
Besides violent clashes that injured several people, ballot boxes were destroyed in several parts of the state.
The polling began at 7 am in 73,887 seats in the rural areas of the state with 5.67 crore people deciding the fate of around 2.06 lakh candidates. 66.28 percent votes were polled till 5 pm.
Governor CV Ananda Bose visited different areas in North 24 Parganas district and met injured people in the violence.
Incidents of destruction of ballot boxes and intimidation of voters were also reported in some areas.
In Cooch Behar district’s Dinhata, ballot boxes were vandalised and ballot papers were set on fire at a booth in Baravita Govt Primary School. At another booth in the Barnachina area, locals torched a ballot box along with ballot papers, alleging that false voting was done.
Protests were also held in various areas, demanding the deployment of central forces.
At least 600 companies of central forces have been deployed for the elections along with around 70,000 state police.
There are 63,229 gram panchayat seats and 9,730 panchayat samiti seats in 22 districts, while 928 zilla parishad seats in 20 districts as Darjeeling and Kalimpong have a two-tier system with Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and Siliguri Sub-divisional Council at the top.
The ruling TMC is contesting all the 928 seats in zilla parishads, 9,419 seats in panchayat samitis and 61,591 seats in gram panchayats. The BJP has fielded candidates in 897 zilla parishad seats, 7,032 panchayat samiti seats, and 38,475 seats in gram panchayats.
The CPI(M) is fighting 747 zilla parishad seats, 6,752 panchayat samiti seats, and 35,411-gram panchayat seats. The Congress is contesting 644 zilla parishad seats, 2,197 panchayat samiti seats, and 11,774 gram panchayat seats.