On Tuesday, West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose vowed to take decisive action against the state’s escalating violence, which has hampered the impending panchayat elections.
Increasing violence in Bengal will be fought against tenaciously, Mr. Bose promised, according to news agency ANI. “Those who use violence in the field will be cursed from the moment of their birth. The lawbreakers and goons will face a hard hand from the authorities.
Security was increased at counting stations around the state as the panchayat elections ballots began to be counted earlier today. This comes in the wake of accusations of election fraud, booth capturing, and other accounts of abnormalities in the voting process.
The elections, which were seen as a popularity test for Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, were marred by widespread violence on Saturday amid claims of ballot box tampering that resulted in the deaths of 36 people.
In 696 booths across 19 districts of the state where voting in the panchayat elections was deemed invalid due to the violence, new elections were held.
Following the reelection, Governor Bose met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday.
“If winter does come, spring won’t be far behind,” is the sole message I’d like to convey today. Soon after meeting Mr. Shah, the Governor predicted that good things will occur soon.
To guarantee a fair, secure, and unbiased election for 3,317 Gramme Panchayats, 341 Panchayat Samitis, and 20 Zila Parishads, security personnel from the federal and state governments were stationed at all 61,636 polling places.
Actually, 18,000 polling places were used fraudulently under the TMC’s command. More data is being gathered. Rajiva Sinha, the state election commissioner, omitted our list, but we are not shocked. Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition, commented on the reelection as reported by news agency PTI. “The list of booths abruptly revealed by the SEC for repoll was provided by the TMC.
The violence that took place on election day was allegedly started by opposing parties, according to TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.
“TMC has suffered the most as a result of this violence instigated by the opposition. Despite the SEC’s request, central troops did not show up. The fact that today’s election was calm is evidence that the SEC took action to maintain control, according to Mr. Ghosh.
Today at 8 am, the vote-counting process started.
In the elections, which saw over 206,000 candidates vie for 73,887 seats, nearly 5.6 crore rural Bengalis were eligible to vote.
