Bengal rural polls: Counting underway, TMC leading in over 3,068 gram panchayats

The latest trends indicate that Trinamool Congress is leading in over 3068 gram panchayat seats in West Bengal while the BJP is ahead in 1151 seats as of 1230 pm State Election Commission officials said on Tuesday news agency PTI reportedThe CPIM is currently ahead in over 400 gram panchayat GP seats followed by its ally Congress in 110 GP seats they saidThese are unofficial figures we will make an official announcement later a poll official told PTICounting of votes for the threetier panchayat polls to nearly 74000 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 weatherThe counting which began at 8 am is likely to continue for the next two days It will take time for the ballots to be counted and the results to be compiled We are hopeful that a trend will be available by the end of the day an SEC official saidAll the counting venues are being manned by armed state police personnel and central forces with prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC being imposed outside the venue to avoid any untoward incidents There are a total of 767 strongrooms across 22 districtsLarge crowds of supporters of various candidates gathered at various centres to ensure that the counting was conducted correctly Violence had rocked West Bengals rural polls on Saturday leaving 15 people dead while ballot boxes were vandalised ballot papers torched and bombs thrown at rivals in several placesOf those killed 11 were affiliated with the TMC The total death toll in the state since the poll process began on June 8 when the dates were announced has crossed 30A voter turnout of 8071 per cent was recorded on Saturday whereas a vote percentage of 6985 was recorded till 5 pm in 696 booths across West Bengal where repolling was held on MondayThe decision for repolling was taken after reviewing reports of violence and tampering with ballot boxes and ballot papers on Saturday A total of 567 crore people living in the states rural areas were eligible to decide the fate of 206 lakh candidates in 73887 seats of the panchayat systemSaturdays violence was in keeping with the states history of violent rural elections including the 2003 panchayat polls which gained notoriety for its cumulative death toll of 76 during the poll process with nearly 40 killed on the day of polling This year with more than 30 killed since polls were announced earlier last month the toll remained almost equal to that of the previous panchayat elections in 2018However this time the Opposition had fielded candidates in more than 90 per cent of seats unlike in 2018 rural polls when the ruling TMC had won 34 per cent of the seats uncontested In the 2018 rural polls the ruling TMC had emerged victorious in 90 per cent of the panchayat seats and in all the 22 zilla parishads The elections were marred by widespread violence with the opposition alleging they were prevented from filing nominations in several seatsPTI