TMC set for huge win in Panchayat polls

Kolkata: The rural populace in Bengal has given their verdict in overwhelming unison in favour of the Trinamool Congress in the three-tier Panchayat election whose results started pouring in on Tuesday evening.

The BJP has acquired a distant second position while the Left and the Congress had a neck-and-neck contest in various seats. In some, however, Independent candidates fared better than both the Congress and the CPM.

Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee thanked the people of Bengal for the clear trend of TMC sweeping the Panchayat polls with a convincing mandate.

BJP’s performance in the four Jangalmahal districts — Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore and Jhargram was abysmal in comparison to the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly polls. According to psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty, the Kurmi votes shifted to the TMC this year with their demand and agitation claiming Scheduled Tribe status being ignored by the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Significantly, Trinamool Congress is leading in all the 284 Gram Panchayat seats in Singur which is famous for the land movement spearheaded by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. In Nandigram, BJP has fared well by bagging eight seats of Nandigram I and Nandigram II GP while TMC got five.

BJP’s performance in the North Bengal districts like Alipurduar and Cooch Behar too was not satisfactory as their candidates remained distant second in all the seats of the three-tier Panchayat elections.

“TMC goons are making desperate attempts to steal the elections by obstructing the counting agents and candidates of the BJP and other opposition political parties from entering counting centres. They are being restricted from going towards the venue, and bombs are being hurled to intimidate counting agents,” BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said.

Till the last update available with the State Election Commission, in Gram Panchayat, rural Bengal has voted all out for the Trinamool Congress with the party bagging over 34,000 seats, BJP 6240, CPM 2220, Congress 1639 and Others 1492. In PS, TMC is leading in 1630 seats, BJP 35, CPM 18, Congress 32 and Others two.

In ZP, TMC clinched 63, BJP won in one while CPI(M) and Congress are yet to open their accounts.

The total number of seats in GP is 63229, in PS it is 9730 while in ZP it is 928.

The total seats that have been won uncontested are 8002 in GP, 991 in PS and 16 in ZP.

In Cooch Behar, out of 34 ZP seats, 338 Panchayat Samiti seats and 2507 GP seats, TMC has won in 1, 17 and 1238 seats respectively. BJP won in 1238 and CPM in 16.

In Alipurduar, out of 18 seats in ZP and 189 in PS, results are yet to be updated while in GP out of 1252 seats, TMC has won in 491, BJP in 225, CPM in 24, Congress in seven and others in 19.

In Jalpaiguri, no results regarding ZP and PS have been updated while in GP out of 1901 TMC has won in 449, BJP in 184, CPM in 29 and Congress in 1. In North Dinajpur in the PS level, TMC has won in 31 out of 293 seats. In case of GP, TMC has been victorious in 608, BJP in 101, CPM in 21 and Congress in 46.

In South Dinajpur, among 1308 GPs, TMC won in 433, BJP in 145, CPM in 49 and Congress in seven. No update for ZP and PS was available.

For Malda, with 3186 GP seats, TMC won in 699, BJP 237, CPM 82 and Congress in 286. In PS, TMC was leading in four seats. Results in 43 ZPs are still being updated.

In Murshidabad, out of 5593 GP seats, TMC won in 1970, BJP in 323, CPM in 379 and Congress in 743. IN PS, TMC has won in 19 while in 78 ZPs results are being awaited.

In Nadia, out of 4011 GP seats, TMC has won in 1121, BJP in 534, CPM in 201 and Congress in 52. In PS, TMC was leading in five seats.

In North 24-Parganas where total GP seats are 4535, TMC has won in 2594, BJP in 250, CPM in 114 and Congress in 24. TMC won in three ZPs and 109 PS.

In South 24-Parganas, TMC won in 4631, BJP in 372, CPM in 220 and Congress in 44. TMC won in 8 ZPs and 233 PS.

In Hooghly, TMC won in 2427 seats, BJP in 372, CPM in 162 and Congress in seven. TMC won in 84 PS and three ZPs.

In Howrah, TMC won in 2228 seats, BJP 379, CPM 220 and Congress in 22. In PS, TMC won in 84 seats.

In East Midnapore ZP level, 1488 seats were bagged by TMC, 934 by BJP, 65 by CPM and 22 by Congress. In West Midnapore, TMC won in 2324 seats, BJP 379, CPM seven and Congress one. In Jhargram GP, TMC won in 567, BJP 1000 and CPM 20.

In Purulia, CPM won in 1147, BJP 299, CPM 118 and Congress 75.

In Bankura, TMC won in nine seats in ZP, while in GP, TMC won in 2091, BJP in 466. CPM in 129 and Congress in four.

In East Burdwan GPs, TMC won in 2652, BJP in 117, CPM in 117, CPM in 195 and Congress in 11.

In Birbhum among ZPs, TMC was leading in three while in GPs, TMC won in 1552, BJP in 151, 53 by CPM and Congress 25.

In Darjeeling and Kalimpong two tier elections were held.

In Darjeeling, among 598 GP seats, TMC won 5, BJP 2 and Others 2. CPM and Congress are yet to open accounts.

In Kalimpong GP out of 281 seats, TMC won in 17, BJP in one, Others two while CPM and Congress are yet to open accounts.