North Dinajpur: Out of 181 seats, Trinamool bags 111, BJP 30

Raiganj: Trinamool Congress (TMC) is set for a landslide victory in North Dinajpur districts in this Panchayat polls.

After the second round of counting TMC candidates were ahead in the Gram Panchayat seats in North Dinajpur district. There are a total 2220 seats in Gram Panchayats in the district.

As many as 181 seats were counted so far in which TMC bagged 111, BJP 30, INC-15, Independents-19 and CPI(M) 6. TMC leaders expected to capture most of the GP seats, all nine Panchayat Samity and the ZP seats in the district this year.

During the counting, a huge gathering of TMC activists was found in front of the counting center in Raiganj Polytechnic Institute on Tuesday morning. Central forces resorted to baton charge to dismiss the large crowd. Some TMC activists were injured.

The President of North Dinajpur TMC Committee Kanaiyalal Agarwal said, “The trend of counting shows that our candidates will win more than 1500 GP seats out of total 2220 seats. We are confident to form boards in all nine Panchayat Samities and Zila Parishad with absolute majority.” On the other hand Basudev Sarkar, President of North Dinajpur BJP committee alleged “On the day of the polls no central force was found in the booths. The TMC backed anti socials intercepted our voters and captured booths.”

TMC members on Monday night protested against the arrest of some TMC workers and demanded their release. One Sofiqul Haque, a TMC member of Bishahar said, “After repolls on Monday, the supporters of both Congress and CPI(M) attacked our members in the village. Police arrested ten of our members including our GP candidate Masud Alam. We protested in front of the police station.”