West Bengal Panchayat Election Results 2018 Live Updates: TMC races towards big win, BJP distant second

Counting for West Bengal Gram Panchayat Election Results 2018 began today

West Bengal Gram Panchayat Election Results 2018: Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress raced towards another big win on Thursday, after establishing an early lead. TMC workers broke into celebration as results started trickling in, pointing towards victory. The party has won four zilla parishads and is currently leading in 16 seats.

As counting began on Thursday morning at  291 counting centres, sporadic reports of violence also emerging from few places. Opposition created a ruckus after accusing the ruling TMC of setting up their own party agents as counting officers. Trinamool has denied all allegations.

The chief parties in the fray for WB rural polls are Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The polls were marked with violence. At 12 persons died and over 40 injured after 43 clashes ensued between cadres of the contesting parties. Reports of miscreants stopping the voters from exercising their franchise, booth capturing and destroying ballot boxes emerged from several districts.

The voting took place for 621 zilla parishads, over six thousand panchayat samitis, and nearly 31 thousand gram panchayats. The zilla parishads are Bankura, Burdwan, Birbhum, Darjeeling, Howrah, Hooghly, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Malda, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Purulia, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Siliguri MP, Kolkata-North, Alipurduar, Kolkata-South and Paschim Burdwan.

Following the violent clashes, the State Election Commission ordered repolling in 572 booths. The voting was held on May 14, repolling on Wednesday, May 16. Over 73 per cent of the electorate had turned out to cast their vote, while 68 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the repolls. The SEC had initially earmarked 568 booths for repolls but later increased it to 572 booths. 

Criticism emerged from several sections following the widespread violence that ensued in the state rural panchayats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called it murder of democracy. “The scenes from the Panchayat Elections in West Bengal. It was nothing but a murder of democracy. From the nomination stage to the day of polling, where was the spirit of democracy? People were bullied," said the PM. 

Ruling Trinamool Congress has dismissed all allegations of violence as baseless.

The panchayat elections in West Bengal saw huge-scale clashes on Monday, primarily between TMC workers and the BJP and CPM.

17 May 2018

22:51 IST

Mamata has hit back at PM Modi who had accused the WB government of inciting violence. "BJP workers did not lose lies in the violence. Trinamool workers did. The PM of the country does not obey his words, he forgets his constitutional position and is making comments on the state's law and order," she said.

20:33 IST

TMC has emerged victorious in 90% of seats despite the Opposition parties coming together. This shows how strong we are at the grassroot level, says West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.