The ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday looked poised to sweep to a massive victory in violence-scarred rural polls in Bengal as the overnight count of ballots gave it an unassailable lead in results declared till now by the State Election Commission.
A total 5.67 crore people were eligible to decide the fate of 2.06 lakh candidates in 73,887 seats. TMC has won in 34,359 gram panchayat seats, besides leading in 752 seats, according to the SEC as of 8 am on Wednesday. In this election, 37 people have lost their lives, with 18 killed on the day of polling on Saturday. The counting though largely peaceful was impaired by deviated incidents including bombs being projected in Bhangar, a place vwhere there had been deaths in the run-up to election, leading to firing by central forces and state police on Tuesday night on rebellious mob which resulted in injuries including on ISF supporters and policemen including an IPS officer. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said over 100 people from West Bengal have taken shelter in the state, fearing for their lives because of the panchayat election violence back home. 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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trailed West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in most regions where it performed well in the 2021 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, trend in the results to the July 8 panchayat elections and July 10 bypolls showed around 8 pm on Tuesday. In various districts, TMC supporters revered their victory by dancing and smearing each other with green colour, the party’s chosen colour.
