BJP defeats Cong, CPI(M) for 2nd spot in nomination filing

The BJP today defeated the Congress and the CPI(M) to emerge as the second largest party after the ruling Trinamool Congress in the number of nominations filed for the upcoming three-tier panchayat polls.

According to the list of nominations filed by various political parties for the panchayat polls, the TMC is way ahead of its rivals in all the three segments of the panchayat polls.

The panchayat elections will be held across 48,650 seats in 3,358 gram panchayats, 9,217 seats in 341 panchayat samitis and 825 seats in 20 zilla parishads in three phases.

The TMC has filed 1,085 nominations for the zila parishads, followed by the BJP, which had filed 832 nominations. The CPI(M) and the Congress had filed 568 and 430 nominations respectively.

For the panchayat samitis, the TMC has filed 12,860 nominations, followed again by the BJP, which has filed 6,351 nominations. The figures for the CPI(M) and the Congress are 4,509 and 1,807 respectively.

The picture is the same in the case of gram panchayats for which the TMC has filed 59,736 nominations, BJP 28,696, CPI(M) 17,904 and the Congress 7,649 respectively.

Asked about the reason behind the TMC filing more nominations than the number of seats in all the three segments, a senior party leader said, "There are many aspirants for the party tickets so many people have filed nominations. But the TMC symbol will be allotted to only those who have been asked by the party to contest."