West Bengal Panchayat Polls On Monday

Amid tight security, West Bengal is all set to vote for Panchayat polls on Monday. Voting will begin at 7 am in the morning and will end at 5 pm in the evening. The results will be declared on May 17.

Marked by Violence and clashes between the political parties, the date of filing of nominations was extended till April 23. A legal tussle was fought between the SEC, State Govt, BJP, Congress, Left front and TMC.

Currently, the TMC controls 90 per cent of the Panchayat seats of the state. According to West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) sources, 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.

SEC said, tomorrow’s elections will be held in 621 zilla parishads and 6,157 panchayat samitis, besides 31,827 gram panchayats.

Security personnel from Assam, Odisha, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh with police personnel of State and Kolkata Police will reinforce security arrangements for the polls.

Routine marches by security forces in various parts of the State were conducted as part of security arrangements.