West Bengal panchayat elections 2013: Trinamool all set to win big

Zee Media Bureau Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Monday appeared set to sweep the crucial panchayat poll in West Bengal with a huge margin in most of the districts. As per latest figures, out of total 3215 seats, 3196 seats have been declared. TMC has bagged 1763 gram panchayats, whereas the Left and Congress have won757 and 246 panchayats respectively.

Others won 430 gram panchayats. The ruling party registered a huge victory in the three districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapur, former Maoist strongholds, by winning majority of its seats. In the adjoining East Midnapore district too, the TMC registered a major win except at Nandigram, the cradle of Banerjee`s anti land acquisition campaign, where the party had to struggle with former Trinamool supporters, who fought as Independents. In Nandigram block I and block II, out of 17 Gram Panchayat seats, official Trinamool candidates won 13 seats, while the Independents bagged three seats and Left managed one. The TMC also swept erstwhile red bastions of Burdwan, Birbhum, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly. In Singur, the Trinamool bagged 12 out of 16 Gram Pancahayt seats, with Left bagging just one and putting up a close fight in three others. In the five districts of North Bengal, which went to polls, resulted showed that Trinamool had widened its reach in Congress dominated regions. The party registered spectacular victories in Gram Panchayat in Coochbehar and south Dinajpur, while making inroads in the Congress domain in North Dinajpur, the home groud of Congress minister and Mamata`s bete noire Deepa Dasmunsi. On the directive of the Supreme Court, the five-phase rural poll in the state was held on July 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25. According to State Election Commissioner Mira Pandey, the entire counting process began at 8 am under tight security cover around all counting centres. The district administration clamped section 144 CRPC prohibitory order within 200 metres around all counting centres to avoid crowd or any untoward incident during the counting process. No mobile phones were allowed inside the counting centres and generators were kept as standby arrangement against power failure during counting of votes, reports said. Of the total 58,865 seats going to polls, 6,274 have been won uncontested, a majority by the Trinamool Congress. In all 1.7 lakh candidates were in fray in over 17 districts. The apex court order had come after the high-voltage tussle between the Mamata Banerjee government and SEC had hit a blind alley as both sides refused to budge on security, with the government insisting on the state armed police and the SEC demanding Central forces for the polls. Apart from this, dates and phases of polling were also a matter of dispute between the SEC and state government. With inputs from Zee 24Ghanta