Trinamool Congress leading in gram panchayat seats

The ruling Trinamool Congress today surged ahead in 1,800 gram panchayat seats while the BJP and the CPI(M) were leading in 100 and 30 gram panchayat seats respectively, as per initial trends available at 10 am, SEC officials said.

The panchayat elections were held for 621 zilla parishads, 6,123 panchayat samitis and 31,802 gram panchayats in West Bengal on May 14.

The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security, the State Election Commission officials said.

Of the 48,650 seats in 3,358 gram panchayats, 16,814 were uncontested and of the 9,217 seats in 341 panchayat samitis, 3,059 were uncontested. In the 20 zilla parishads, 203 of the 825 seats were uncontested, the sources said.