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Bengal panchayat polls: Counting begins amid tight security
Forty-two people have died since June 8 when the schedule for the West Bengal Panchayat elections was announced even as central forces were deployed for in the state
The counting of votes polled for around 74,000 Bengal panchayat seats began under tight security on Tuesday morning a day after re-polling was held at 696 booths following violence during the balloting on Saturday. Forty-two people have died since June 8 when the schedule for the polls was announced.
Officials said around 339 counting centres have been set up across 22 districts. The counting was likely to continue for two days and trends were expected to be available by the end of Tuesday.
Armed state police and central forces were manning the counting centres, where the gathering of over four people has been banned. As many as 56.7 million were eligible to vote for 206000 candidates across 73,887 seats.
“The counting started at 8am...will be held in six rounds. After counting the postal ballots, the counting of ballots for the village panchayats will start. Later the ballots for the panchayat samiti and zilla parishad will be counted. The counting is expected to continue till late in the night,” said a poll official.
At least 80-90 central force personnel will be guarding each of the counting centres. Jishnu Saha, the state election commission’s lawyer, told the Calcutta high court on Monday that a company of central armed police force along with state armed police will guard each counting centre
A Border Security Force (BSF) officer said a company of central forces (90 personnel) will guard each of the strongrooms. “They would remain at the counting centres until the results are announced.”
The BSF was to deploy one to two sections (each comprising around 9 personnel) within a radius of 2–4 km around counting centres.
Last week, the high court ordered that central paramilitary forces remain stationed in the state for at least 10 days after the announcement of panchayat poll results to prevent post-poll clashes.
Post-poll violence erupted after the results of the 2021 assembly elections were declared in May 2021.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) earlier demanded a re-poll, citing alleged booth capturing, rigging, looting of ballot boxes, harassment of polling officials, firing, and bomb attacks. At least 18 people were killed and dozens injured on the day of polling. Twelve people were killed in rural election day violence in 2018.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury moved the high court on Monday seeking compensation for those killed or injured in poll-related violence and an independent probe into it. The BJP will send a four-member team to Bengal and prepare a report on the poll violence.
In 2018, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) bagged around 90% of the panchayat seats including 34% of which were uncontested amid large-scale violence. This year, around 9.5% of West Bengal’s 73,887 panchayat seats have been won uncontested. The state election commission has not identified the parties that won the uncontested seats.
The TMC swept the rural polls in Bengal in 2018 a year before the BJP registered its best performance in the national polls in the state, winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats. It won just two seats in the 2014 national polls in the state.
The TMC returned to power in 2021 for the third consecutive time, winning 215 of the 294 seats. The BJP also improved its tally of seats by winning 77 seats compared to just three in 2016. The party is hoping to maintain the momentum ahead of the 2024 national polls.
In the civic polls this year, the TMC won 1,871 of the 2171 seats across 108 municipalities. The BJP ended third with only 63 seats. The Left parties got the second-highest tally of seats. They ruled the state for 34 years before the TMC came to power in 2011.
