The counting for West Bengal panchayat polls in nearly 74,000 seats began in the morning on Tuesday. Polling was held on nearly 61,000 booths on July 8 for the three-tier panchayat elections. On Monday repolling was held across 696 polling booths in 19 districts of the state. A total number of 73,887 seats across all three levels- gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads- went on polls on Saturday. At least 20 persons were killed in poll related violence.
According to the latest report of the West Bengal Election Commission till the time of the filing of the news, the Trinamool Congress was leading in 8,692 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party was ahead in 1,453 seats and Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 894 seats and Indian National Congress in 344.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Samit Patra addressed the media in the morning. He said that the Central Forces sent to West Bengal, were not deployed properly by the State Government earlier. ''The information as regards the number of sensitive booths was kept hidden. Also, no data of any kind about the sensitive booths was provided,'' he added.
While TMC's Babul Supriyo hit back at the BJP on Sambit Patra's violence blame. ''The BJP seems to be struggling to find solid ground. Their aimless attacks without evidence are truly remarkable. It's not surprising, though. Their deep-seated fear of rejection has them grasping. The people of Bengal have spoken loud and clear, shutting the door on their divisive politics once again. But isn't it interesting how they conveniently forget to introspect before hurling accusations at others? Remember when BJP's Suvendu Adhikari openly encouraged ballot box vandalism? The BJP''s silence was deafening,'' said the state minister Babul Supriyo.
