The Trinamul Congress appears headed for a thumping win in the three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal, with trends from the counting of votes, which began today, clearly indicating that the party is all set to increase its tally from the 2018 elections, riding on the people’s overwhelming mandate.The party made major gains in north Bengal and in the Junglemahal districts at the expense of its main opposition, the BJP.
The results of the Panchayat elections started coming in after late afternoon.According to the last reports received, at the Gram Panchayat, Trinamul Congress has won 18,580 seats. The BJP, CPIM, Congress and others were far behind, having won 4,479, 1,426, 1,071 and 1,538 seats respectively. In the 2018 Panchayat election, the Trinamul Congress got 38,118 seats altogether while the BJP got 5779 seats. In the Panchayat Samity Trinamul had got 8062 seats while the saffron party got 769 seats.
In Zilla Parishad, Trinamul got 793 seats while BJP got 22 seats. There are 63,228 Gram Panchayat seats, 9,730 in Panchayat Samity and 928 Zilla Parishad seats that went to the polls on 8 July. Counting for Panchayat Samiti tier had only begun in some districts as of Tuesday evening, and counting for Zilla Parishad seats had not started.
Counting is expected to continue into the night and on Wednesday. Congratulating the people, Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary tweeted: “The dejection of the combined opposition of BJP, CPIM and INC pales in comparison to the sadness that must be felt by friends from mainstream media.
“Even a malicious campaign with baseless propaganda to malign the AITC state government in WB couldn’t sway the voters! “Grateful to the people for converting opposition’s No vote to Mamata campaign to Now vote for Mamata. With unwavering support to # Trinamoole Nabo Jowar, we will surely have a roaring mandate, paving the way for LS elections.
Bengal, I thank you for all the love.” Tapas Roy, TMC deputy chief whip, said: “Throughout the year Trinamul Congress works for the development of the people. People are with Mamata Banerjee and have expressed their views without any hesitation.”
Dr Shashi Panja said: “From day 1 since the nomination began, the opposition started creating violence as they knew that they would be washed away. Out of sheer frustration, the opposition created trouble on the day of the election on 8 July and today.”