West Bengal: After violence-tainted polling for the three-tier panchayat elections, the counting of votes began amid tight security on Tuesday morning in West Bengal. Around 5.67 crore people dwelling in rural West Bengal were eligible to vote for 2.06 lakh candidates on 73,887 seats. These include 928 zilla parishad, 9,730 panchayat samiti and 63,229 gram panchayat seats.
Incidents of ballot boxes being looted, set on fire and thrown in ponds, leading to violence, in several places marred polling. 15 people were killed, 11 of those affiliated with the TMC. Over 30 people have died in West Bengal since the process of election began back on June 8 with announcement of dates.
A turnout of over 80.71 percent was recorded on Saturday in over 61,000 polling booths. 696 booths in 19 districts saw repolling on Sunday with 69.85 percent of all eligible voters casting their ballots.
For ruling TMC, the election is a tougher contest than the previous one in 2018. Opposition had fielded candidates in over 90 percent of seats, unlike in 2018 when TMC had won 34 percent of the seats unopposed.
West Bengal Panchayat Elections 2023 Latest Updates
01:30 pm: Ruckus erupts at a counting booth in Falimari gram panchayat in Cooch Behar. Ink and water was allegedly thrown on ballot papers by a TMC candidate, ANI reports.
01:00 pm: Early trends indicate TMC is leading in over 2,229 gram panchayat seats in West Bengal while the BJP is ahead in 664 seats. CPI(M) is currently leading in over 460 gram panchayat seats followed by ally Congress in 168, says SEC.
12:30 pm: Crude bombs go off outside a counting centre in Diamond Harbour, ANI reports. Video surfaces, watch:
10:00 am: TMC leads in 9 out of 98 seats in Gram Panchayat, 3 out of 26 seats in Zila Parishad in North Dinajpur.
9:30 am: TMC is leading in 85 panchayat seats in South 24 Parganas.
9:00 am: Trinamool Congress (TMC) has attained lead in 63 out of the 185 panchayat seats in Nadia. Other parties including BJP, Congress yet to secure any seats.
8:30 am: The results are unlikely to come today with the counting expected to continue for two days. SEC has said that a trend will hopefully be available by the end of the day.
8:00 am: Counting of votes begins taking place at 339 heavily guarded centres across 22 West Bengal districts.
(Inputs from PTI, ANI)
