Priya Aditi
West Bengal Panchayat Re-Polls:On Monday, the State Election Commission (SEC) will conduct re-voting in 697 locations across 5 districts in West Bengal, where ten people were killed two days earlier during Panchayat election violence.
West Bengal will conduct re-voting in the districts of Purulia, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, Nadia, and South 24 Parganas, according to an official statement.
“The West Bengal State Election Commission, in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by sub-section (3) and sub-section (4) of Section 67 of the said Act, hereby fixes the 10th day of July, 2023 as the date of taking the fresh poll at 07.00 hours to be continued up to 17.00 hours uninterruptedly till completion and directs the District Panchayat Election Officer to fix the polling station at which poll shall be taken,” said SEC in its official statement.
BJP alleges that State Election Commission officials engaged in proxy voting.
Sunday, BJP representative Khagen Murmu claimed that the West Bengal panchayat elections had also been disrupted by proxy voting. Khagen Murmu of the BJP claimed that some presiding officers and election staff participated in proxy voting in favor of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) during Sunday’s by-elections that were marred by significant violence.
State general secretary of the BJP in West Bengal, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, also requested a re-vote in a letter to the State Election Commission.
“Yesterday, a BJP WB delegation met with you and requested that you review CCTV/video footage to determine which booths must be re-polled due to booth, looting, polling officers seen participating/assisting in rigging, or where BJP candidates’ agents were forced to leave or removed from polling stations,” Chattopadhyay wrote in a letter.
Violence during West Bengal Panchayat elections
On Saturday, West Bengal held elections for Panchayat representatives. Twenty out of thirty districts, however, were marked by pervasive violence, including ballot paper theft and vote rigging. Last year, seven new districts were established: Sunderban, Ichhemati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Jangipur, and Behrampur. One more district will be established in Basirhat.
Several districts, including Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, and Nadia, reported incidents of capturing polling stations, damaging ballot boxes, and assaulting presiding officers.
Saturday, West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused TMC of unleashing unprecedented levels of terror in the state.
“The ruling party’s incoherence with the police administrations…has unleashed an unprecedented reign of terror, which has claimed the lives of 26 people, and hundreds of people have been committed to the hospital with fatal injuries. Bengal’s political and electoral climate has been tumultuous…It is a mockery of panchayat elections and a textbook case of electoral fraud…,” said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary.
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In West Bengal, voting began at 7 a.m. amid strict security in 73,887 rural seats, with 5.67 billion voters deciding the fate of approximately 2.06 lakh candidates.
