SILIGURI: While violence marred polls in three municipalities of the plains, polls in the four civic bodies of the hills largely remained peaceful during the municipal elections that concluded in West Bengal on Sunday. An average of 74% votes were polled in the seven municipalities, which would be counted on Wednesday.
Opposition claimed that bombs were hurled by Trinamool Congress cadre in Domkal, Raiganj and Pujali municipalities in Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur and South 24 Parganas districts respectively.
Polling was largely peaceful without any reports of violence in the hills.
While Domkal is a Congress stronghold, TMC is powerful in Pujali. The ruling party and emerging opposition BJP came face to face in Raiganj municipality.
According to final figures released by the State Election Commission (SEC), Domkal had the highest voting percentage at 82.8%. Pujali closely followed with 81.7% while Raiganj registered 79.2% votes.
The polling percentage was comparatively lesser in the hills of northern Bengal. Mirik, which witnessed a tough fight between TMC and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), witnessed the highest poll percentage in the hills at 77.3%
Kurseong registered 71.8% votes whereas 65.2% voters in Kalimpong and 59.9% voters in Darjeeling casted their votes on Sunday, according to final figures released by SEC.
While high voting percentage in Pujali and Mirik is likely to benefit TMC, nearly 80% voting percentage in Raiganj may benefit the BJP.