Polling to elect 38,616 representatives across three tiers of the West Bengal panchayat system began at 7 am on Monday.

The turnout in the morning seemed good as long queues could be seen outside several booths as people turned up in large numbers to exercise their franchise.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has already won 34 per cent of the total seats unopposed — 20,076 out of the total 58,692 seats — with no rival candidate filing nominations for the seats at all three levels — panchayat, panchayat samiti and the zila parishad.

It has been predicted that the BJP may emerge as the main opposition after the panchayat elections, leaving the Left Front and the Congress far behind, even as Trinamool will win majority of the seats.

Nearly 71,500 armed personnel are on duty, manning every booth, as part of the arrangements in place for providing security for smooth conduct of the panchayat elections. Armed forces have arrived from Assam, Odisha, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh to strengthen the security arrangements.

The panchayat elections are taking place after several incidents of pre-poll violence and weeks of legal battles over security for candidates.

READ | West Bengal panchayat elections: Facts, figures and everything else you need to know

The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on May 1, 3 and 5. But all the opposition parties had .accused the Trinamool of preventing them from filing nominations, when the process started last month.

The matter reached the Calcutta High Court after television visuals showed armed groups gathering before the offices of block development officers and the sub-divisional officers in a number of districts and stopping prospective candidates from entering the poll fray.

The State Election Commission (SEC) extended the deadline for submitting nominations by a day, only to reverse the order in less than 12 hours.

The court then  intervened and put a stay on the elections. After more bitter legal battles, the SEC declared May 14 as the new polling date.

The seats where election results have already come out include 16,814 of the total 48,650 panchayats, 3,059 of the total 9,217 panchayat samitis and 203 of the total 825 zila parishads.

The Supreme Court has asked the SEC not to issue winning certificates in case of the uncontested seats.

(With IANS)