Raiganj: TMC bagged majority of the Gram Panchayat (GP), Panchayat Samity (PS) and Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in the North Dinajpur district in Panchayat polls this year.
TMC bagged 923 seats and are leading in 44 seats, BJP got 358 seats and is leading in 11 seats, Congress won 190 seats and CPI(M) got 79 seats out of a total of 2003 seats of GP in North Dinajpur district. TMC won 217 GP seats in Chopra without contest. Counting is yet to be completed in some GP seats at the time of filing of this report.
In the PS TMC bagged 120 seats, BJP got 28, Congress and CPI(M) won 12 and 1 seats respectively. In addition, TMC won all 39 seats of Chopra PS without contest. In the ZP, TMC bagged 23 seats, including 3 seats in Chopra without contest and Congress got 3 seats out of total 26 in ZP.
In the 2018 Panchayat polls, TMC bagged 860 seats, BJP-367, CPII(M) 96, Congress 77, RSP 3 and Independents got 147 seats out of 1649 GP seats.
Though the number of seats both in GP and PS increased this year in the district for the TMC, comparatively Congress saw better results in both GP and ZP. In 2018 they had no seat in ZP. But this year three Congress candidates won in ZP seats. BJP had one seat in Kaliyaganj ZP in the last Panchayat polls. They have been defeated in all ZP seats this time.
In 2018, All India Forward Bloc had 44 seats in GP. This year they got only 1.
Meanwhile, BJP MP of Raiganj Debasree Chaudhuri levelled allegations against BDO Raiganj Subhahit Mandal for favouring TMC candidates in counting and she along with BJP members raided the chamber of BDO where BDO allegedly was manhandled and fell sick. He has been admitted to Raiganj Medical College & Hospital.
Waving off allegations, TMC President of North Dinajpur district Kanaiyalal Agarwal said: “The Opposition parties had been trying to stall elections from the very first day. Public has given a clear mandate for Didi’s development.”