Bengal Rural Polls

The final results of the West Bengal panchayat elections are likely to be declared on July 17, as the compilation process is taking a lot of time, a senior official said on Friday. Results of a number of seats in the three tiers of the panchayat polls held on July 8 were out, but the final tally has not yet been released by the State Election Commission (SEC). The counting process which began on July 11 is over, but the compilation is still underway, the official told PTI. "There are a total of 71,000 seats, so one can understand the mammoth task of compiling the results. Besides, the process has become slow because of some technical issues. We are hoping to release the results on Monday," he said. The state poll panel has countermanded the panchayat polls in 20 booths in three districts because of various malpractices during the counting process. Fresh voting will be held in those booths at a later date to be notified in due course. According to the results declared so far, the .

The ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday steamrolled to a massive victory in West Bengal's violence-scarred rural polls, bagging all zila parishads and leaving its rivals trailing way behind in results declared by the State Election Commission. The TMC won all 20 Zila Parishads in the three-tier panchayat system, winning a straight 880 seats, while its nearest rival BJP won 31 seats out of 928 seats. The Congress-Left front alliance won 15 seats while others won 2 remining seats. The TMC has won over 35,000 gram panchayat seats, out of the 63,219 gram panchayat seats. However though the counting was over exact figures were not known as compilation and dissemination process was not complete said officials. The ruling party's nearest rival BJP has won nearly 10,000 seats. While the Left-Congress alliance won over approximately 6,000 seats. It was TMC's aim discussed in party inner circles that the party win bigtime in the rural polls but without resorting to violence, in a manne

Early trends indicate that the Trinamool Congress is leading in over 2,229 gram panchayat seats in West Bengal while the BJP is ahead in 664 seats, State Election Commission officials said on Tuesday. The CPI(M) is currently leading in over 460 gram panchayat seats followed by its ally Congress in 168, they said. The ruling TMC is also leading in 28 seats of gram samities, SEC officials said. "These are unofficial figures, we will make an official announcement later," a poll official told PTI. The counting of votes for the three-tier panchayat polls to nearly 74,000 seats in West Bengal began in a peaceful manner amid tight security, officials said. There are around 339 counting venues spread across 22 districts. The maximum number of counting centres was in South 24 Parganas at 28, while the minimum was in Kalimpong at four. Some northern districts are also facing inclement weather. "The counting, which began at 8 am, is likely to continue for the next two days. It will take ti

The West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday informed the Calcutta High Court that the Union Home Ministry has sanctioned the balance 485 companies of central force for the panchayat elections, taking the total to 822 companies. The SEC counsel submitted that 4,834 booths for the rural polls have been identified as sensitive, which is 7.8 per cent of the total 61,636 booths. The commission informed a division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam that it received intimation on Monday that the ministry has sanctioned 485 companies, in addition to the 337 approved earlier. The 822 companies of central force are higher than what was deployed during the 2013 panchayat elections, which was considered as the benchmark by the court for deciding their requisition for the July 8 polls. The high court had on June 21 directed the SEC to requisition more than 82,000 central forces' personnel for deployment in panchayat elections. During the hearing of contempt petitions agains

More than 10,000 residents of high-rises in New Town on Kolkata's northern fringes, who live in panchayat area, have decided not to vote in the July 8 elections in West Bengal. New Town Forum chairman Samaresh Das said there are around 16,000 voters spread across several panchayats and that a majority of them are unwilling to exercise their franchise as they "do not wish to be labelled as villagers". "We have already collected signatures of 12,000 voters who have decided not to exercise their franchise besides demanding that the township be taken out of the jurisdiction of panchayats," Das said. Das said the forum has been campaigning in favour of a poll boycott and started putting up banners and hoardings across the township asking residents not to vote. Though the township is in panchayat areas, all civic services are provided by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA). "Though we pay higher civic taxes than people staying in Kolkata Municipal Corporation areas, yet th

Hours after West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose summoned State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rajiva Sinha to Raj Bhawan, the senior officer said he will not be able to meet him due to his preoccupations with panchayat polls, an official said. Sinha requested Bose to exempt him from appearing during the day and give him an appointment any other day, he said. "Sinha is not skipping. He sought exemption for today. He has requested the Governor to give him time any other day," the official told PTI. Bose had summoned Sinha to Raj Bhavan at 2pm on Saturday to update him about the violence that claimed four lives in the state and steps taken by the state government to contain the situation. After visiting Bhangore on Friday, the Governor said measures must be taken end political violence and assured that "perpetrators would be permanently silenced" and brought to book. After talking to local residents and senior police officers there, Bose said violence would not be tolerated. More than

West Bengal Chief Minister on Monday held an organisational meeting of the TMC's Birbhum district unit, and took stock of the party's preparedness ahead of the rural polls. The district unit's president Anubrata Mondal was last year arrested by the CBI for his alleged involvement in a cattle smuggling scam. Banerjee, who is on a tour of various districts from Monday, held a closed-door meeting in Bolpur, and inducted three new leaders in the district core committee, which was formed after the arrest of Mondal. During the meeting, the party supremo (Banerjee) oversaw the preparedness for the panchayat polls (due this year). She also inducted Kajal Sheikh, MP Satabdi Roy and MP Asit Mal into the district core committee, a TMC leader said. This was Banerjee's first visit to the district after the arrest of Mondal, a staunch loyalist of the party chief. His three-decade-long political career has been marked by controversies and strong-arm tactics. Mondal was arrested in August last y

BJP is also planning to revamp the organisation in districts and frontal organisations