KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress claimed moral victory after the Supreme Court refused to allow re-election to over 20,000 gram panchayat seats in West Bengal that it won without contest during the panchayat elections in May.
"This is the people's victory, the democracy's victory and has failed the attempts of the Opposition to defame us. Uncontested seats are won by candidates all over the country including Uttar Pradesh. But, they tried to defame our state," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
The apex court allowed the results of the 20,178 uncontested seats - comprising around 34 per cent of the total seats in the three-tier panchayat system - be declared. The results were put on hold due to the hearing in the court. The elections were held in 48,650 gram panchayat, 825 zilla parishad and 9,217 panchayat samiti seats in May.
"This is our historic victory and has failed the opposition's attempts to mislead the public. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah attacked us over the uncontested seats. They should now kneel down and seek forgiveness from the 10 crore people of West Bengal. We hope that after this victory, the people of Bengal will give all the 42 Lok Sabha seats to us next year," panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said.
"The ruling has come as a befitting perfect reply to both the opposition and to the people within the party who had opposed me over my arguments in the case. I am fortunate that Mamata Banerjee still has faith on me," TMC lawyer and Serampore MP Kalyan Banerjee said.
The Supreme Court also gave 30 days to the opposition candidates to file petitions at a tribunal over their allegations of not being allowed to file nominations during the election.
The BJP, the CPI-M and the Congress said the Supreme Court window of tribunal indicates that it does not rule that the elections were free and fair. "We had hoped that re-elections would be declared but probably the Supreme Court did not want further violence and deaths that were unleashed during the elections when 75 people were killed. The BJP did not lose the case, and the people of Bengal understood that they have been duped by the government and the people will give a befitting reply in Lok Sabha elections," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.
"The Supreme Court made clear that the elections were not free and fair by allowing the opposition candidates to file the petitions," Left Front leader Sujan Chakraborty said.
"In its judgment, the Supreme Court said because of the tense situation during the panchayat elections, the State Election Commission was forced to postpone the date of the election," Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Ranjan Choudhury said.