West Bengal panchayat election results today; state sees 42 deaths, re-polling. 10 updates

After days of sporadic violence across the state, the results of the West Bengal panchayat election, seen as a litmus test for the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, will be declared on Tuesday amid tight security of central forces and the state police.

The counting of votes started at 8am. All counting centres will have a deployment of central forces and CCTV cameras installed.

Top 10 updates on the West Bengal panchayat election results:

1. The re-polling, ordered by the state election commission in 696 booths in 19 districts of Bengal following deadly violence and booth-capturing incidents reported during the July 8 voting, was held on Monday with 69.85-per cent of all eligible voters casting their ballots till 5pm.

2. On Monday, four more persons were reported dead, taking the toll of political violence to 42 since June 8, when the three-tier local body polls were announced.

3. Allegations of vote tampering had marred the panchayat elections, forcing the SEC headed by Rajiva Sinha to order a repoll in affected booths in all but three districts of Bengal.

4. At least 18 persons were killed and dozens injured on July 8 amid widespread allegations of booth capturing, rigging, looting of ballot boxes, heckling of polling officials, firing and bomb attacks. The number of people that died solely on voting day stands at 18, six higher than the 12 people that were killed in polling day violence in 2018.

5. On Monday, the repolling started at 7am amid tight security with at least four central forces personnel deployed in each booth, besides state police. Those who were in queues at 5pm in voting booths were allowed to cast their ballot with election officers working overtime to ensure a smooth process.

6. “No major untoward incidents were reported from the districts where repolling is underway. A couple of stray incidents happened and those were managed by the police,” an SEC official said.

7. Senior TMC MP Sougata Roy said violence and killings are not expected in democracy, but passed the buck to the State Election Commission (SEC). Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to State Election Commission requesting to ensure impartial and free and fair counting of votes in the presence of central forces for the panchayat election, the safety of all candidates and agents need to be ensured. He moved the Calcutta high court, demanding compensation for victims killed or injured in poll-related violence and a probe into the events of Saturday, which should be conducted by an independent agency and monitored by the court.

8. The BJP, in a release, said it has nominated a four-member fact-finding committee to visit the violence-affected areas in West Bengal. The panel members include MP and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and MP Dr Satyapal Singh.

9. Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose will visit South 24 Parganas district, including Bhangar and Canning, to take the stock of the situation. On Monday, governor CV Ananda Bose met Union home minister Amit Shah and apprised him of the violence in West Bengal two days back.

10. In 2018, the TMC had won uncontested, 34 per cent of the seats in the panchayat elections. The ruling party has won several seats without contesting this year as well. The opposition had alleged several candidates were stopped from filing nominations by the ruling TMC cadre.