West Bengal panchayat polls: TMC wins more than one third seats unopposed even before votes are cast

The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has set a record in the upcoming panchayat elections even before a single vote has been cast. The party has won a whopping 34 per cent or one third of the total number of seats in the state.

Figures released by the State Election Commission reveal that the TMC has won 16,814 out of 48,650 gram panchayat (GP) seats unopposed in the state as no opposition candidate had filed nominations for the same.

The SEC has released final figures after withdrawal and scrutinisation of nomination papers across the state. Of the 9,217 panchayat samiti (PS) seats, the TMC has won unopposed in 3059 seats. Similarly, the party has registered a clean sweep across 203 out of 825 zila parishad (ZP) seats as well.

Once considered a Congress bastion, Mamata Banerjee's party has won the zila parisad in Murshidabad district. It is Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's home turf. TMC has already got 48 out of 70 seats in its kitty.

Similarly, in another crucial district Birbhum, TMC has made a complete sweep winning all the 42 zila parishad seats unopposed. The opposition parties - BJP, Congress and the Left failed to put up a single candidate for those seats. In adjacent Bankura too, the picture is same. TMC has wrest control of the zila parishad winning 31 out of the 46 seats on offer.

In some of the other districts, the ruling party has already opened its score bagging a substantial number of zila parishad seats even before the polls. It has won 28 out of 81 seats in South 24 Pargana, 13 out of 50 in Hooghly and 17 out of 58 seats in Purba Bardhaman district.

According to the data released by the SEC, the ruling TMC has filed more than 100 per cent nominations across zila parishad, panchayat samiti and gram panchayat seats. Among the opposition parties, the BJP has filed maximum nominations - 95 per cent in zila parisad seats, 67 in panchayat samitis and 57 per cent in gram panchayat seats.

West Bengal is scheduled to vote in its three tier panchayat elections on May 14. The state election commission announced a single phase poll after the dates had to be rescheduled following a Calcutta high court order which cancelled the earlier three phase poll dates announced by the poll panel.

Also read: BJP in Bengal uses images of Bangladeshi violence for panchayat election manifesto