Demolishing the claim of Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, that the Trinamul Congress is not allowing workers of the saffron party to file nominations in the ensuing Panchayat election, information available from the State Election Commission indicates that the BJP has filed highest number of nomination in the past two days.

The three-tier Panchayat election (two-tier for Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts) will be held on 8 July and the results will be declared on 11 July. In the past two days the BJP has filed 3,820 nominations followed by the CPI-M with 2,952 nominations and Trinamul Congress and Congress have filed 626 and 233 respectively.

For the elections to the Zilla Parishad, the BJP has filed 21 nominations followed by CPIM with 12 nominations while Congress and Trinamul Congress have filed 2 and 1 nomination. For Panchayat Samiti elections, the BJP has filed 489 nominations, followed by the CPIM with 413 nominations, Trinamul Congress 110 nominations and Congress 17 nominations.

For Gram Panchayat seat, the BJP has filed 3,320 nominations followed by the CPIM with 2,527 nominations, Trinamul Congress 515 nominations, Congress 214 nominations, Forward Bloc 30 nominations and others 162 nominations. There are a total of 68,283 seats at stake, taking the Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad seats together.

There are 38,118 seats in Gram Panchayat, 8,062 seats in Panchayats while in the Zilla Parishads there are 793 seats. It is interesting to note that Forward Bloc, one of the partners of Left Front is fielding its candidates separately. RSP and CPI will also field their own candidates.

Kunal Ghosh, Trinamul Congress state general secretary said the high turn-out of BJP candidates filing nominations clearly indicate that Mr Adhikari is telling lies. “The candidates are filing their nominations peacefully and Trinamul Congress leaders, including party chairperson Mamata Banerjee and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have categorically stated that violence by party leaders or workers would not be tolerated and stern action be taken against those involved in violence.”