The ruling TMC surged ahead of the Opposition Left Front and Congress in 13 of 17 districts in West Bengal, as initial results of the panchayat polls came in on Monday. A clear picture of the results will be available on Tuesday. In the 2008 elections, the Left Front won 13 zilla parishads while the Congress and the TMC got two each.
Of the total 58,865 seats, the ruling party had already won at least 6,294 uncontested. “The results show it is the victory of the people and democracy. It is also a victory of our ‘ma-mati-manush’ politics. People have voted despite the heat, rains and Ramzan. We should respect the verdict and behave in a peaceful manner,” Chief Minister Mamata said.
“People have exposed the nexus of uncle and nephew (CPM and Congress). They have rejected the consistent attacks on Mamata Banerjee,” TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee said.
The Left Front is likely to win Malda and Jalpaiguri. The Congress is leading in Murshidabad while giving stiff competition to the Left in Malda and the TMC in North Dinajpur.
The Opposition parties, however, have alleged the elections were rigged and marred by political violence and law and order problems. At least 24 people were killed in clashes during the election.
The Left also alleged irregularities in the counting. “There have been rampant irregularities in counting. The TMC’s counting agents, police personnel and some Election Commission officials are directly involved in the fraudulent counting of votes,” Left Front chairman Biman Bose said.