Despite Trinamool Congress workers unleashing violence and using force to stop Opposition workers and candidates from reaching booths, the BJP has emerged second in panchayat election results that were declared on Thursday evening. Polling was held on May 14.
The counting began at 8 am on Thursday and may continue to Friday, said sources. Violence was reported even on the counting day with Trinamool goons breaking into counting stations and damaging the ballot papers of the Opposition parties in places like Nadia, Birbhum, Alipurduar, Coochbehar, prompting senior CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb to demand President’s Rule in Bengal.
“Bengal has been taken over by goons. No proper election can be held in Mamata’s rule. The situation makes Bengal a perfect place for Article 356,” he said.
And as the results started pouring in, the left was known to bite dust again with the TMC sweeping rural polls winning all the Zilla Parishads (district boards), and doing exceptionally well at the Panchayat Samiti and Gram Panchayat level, that would provide a solid foundation for the Mamata party in the 2019 general elections.
Apart from Trinamool’s amazing victories that surpassed by several notches the exploits of the left Front during its heydays of 1980s and ‘90s, the BJP put up a good show pushing the Marxists to the third spot.
The saffron party did exceptionally well in Purulia bordering Jharkhand where the party won 34 gram panchayats, two less than the TMC, which bagged 36. In Jhargram, the BJP did well, sources said.
Out of 36 Zilla Parishad seats in Coochbehar, the TMC won 21. In neighbouring Alipurduar, it won 12 out of 18 seats leaving one for the BJP.
In adjacent Jalpaiguri, the TMC won 13 out of 19 seats. The BJP won one. In South Dinajpur, it had won 13 whereas the BJP got one.
In Murshidabad, a strong Congress belt, Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowhdury won his Behrampore seat by a whopping 3.25 lakh votes in 2014, the TMC won all 22 out of 22 seats.
In neighbouring Nadia, the TMC won 28 seats leaving 3 and one for the BJP and the left. It was leading in the remaining 12 seats, reports last coming in said.
In North 24 Parganas, the ruling party won 32 seats leaving one for the left and in Hooghly district it won 21 out of 27 seats. In neighbouring Howrah, Mamata’s party bagged 16 out of 40 seats and was leading in the rest whereas in East Midnapore it clinched 27 out of 53 seats.
In neighbouring West Midnapore, the party won 30 out of 51 seats leaving one for the BJP. In Bankura, the TMC won 10 while the BJP one. In East and West Burdwan the ruling outfit bagged 27 and 11 seats respectively out of a combined 55 seats. It was leading in the remaining ones.
At Gram Panchayat level, the TMC had won 19059 seats while the BJP and left bagged 4,976 and 1,287 respectively while the Congress bagged 892.
Curiously the Independents have won 1,591 seats which is more than the left. At Panchayat Samiti level the Trinamool bagged 1,110 seats leaving 87 and 19 respectively for the BJP and the left, the SEC sources quoting reports trickling in till 5 pm said.
Counting of ballots may roll well into Friday noon SEC officials said.
After much legal drama over alleged inappropriate security arrangements and single-phase polls, the rural elections were finally held for 621 ZP, 6,123 PS and 31,802 GP seats in 20 districts of West Bengal.
Of the 48,650 seats in gram panchayats, 16,814 went uncontested. There was no contest for 3,059 of the 9,217 PS seats. In all, 203 of the 825 ZP seats were uncontested, SEC sources said.
This led to a petition being filed in the Supreme Court which ordered a stay on the release of the results for these seats. The matter would be heard in July when the Court reassembles after vacation.
The panchayat elections saw 29 electoral violence-related deaths on the polling day and afterwards. Another 19 people had died during the filing of nominations.