West Bengal: Trinamool Congress holds huge lead in panchayat polls

The Trinamool Congress was leading in 2,228 out of the 2,702 of the gram panchayats in West Bengal for which trends were available till 9 pm on Tuesday, according to ABP Ananda. The state has a total of 3,317 gram panchayats. The Bharatiya Janata Party was leading in 203 gram panchayats. The Left Front was ahead in 53 of them, while the Congress’ tally was 63.

The ruling party was also leading in 114 of the 126 panchayat samitis for which trends were available. A total of 341 panchayat samitis went to polls. None of the 20 zilla parishads have been declared yet.

The counting of votes for 73,887 seats in the three-tier panchayat system of West Bengal began on Tuesday morning.

The polling for the rural elections in the state took place on July 8. However, repolling was held at 696 booths on Monday after widespread incidents of violence left at least 20 persons dead and reports of tampering with ballot boxes also surfaced.

Violence was reported from different parts of the state even on Tuesday.

The Trinamool Congress has alleged that members of the attacked the car of its candidate from Gobindapur Gram Panchayat, Murshidabad, Mamoni Bibi while she was on her way to the counting hall. Her husband...

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