TMC candidates bag ZP seats in 3 districts

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress candidates have won the Zilla Parishad in the districts of Birbhum, Murshidabad and Bankura uncontested.

The three-tier Panchayat election is scheduled to be held on May 14. There are 48,650 Gram Panchayat seats, followed by 9,217 Panchayat Samity seats and 825 Zilla Parishad seats. The three-tier Panchayat elections began in 1978, after the Left Front came to power in 1977.

In Birbhum, Trinamool Congress candidates have won in all the 42 ZP seats. In Murshidabad, Trinamool Congress candidates have won in 48 out of 70 seats.

Murshidabad was a Congress stronghold until recently. It was the fiefdom of Adhir Chowdhury, WBPCC president.

After coming to power, Trinamool started to increase its organisational strength. Mamata Banerjee gave state Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari the responsibility to organise the party in the district, which brought immediate success. Trinamool got control over all the civic bodies. The victory of 48 candidates without contest shows the organisational strength of the party.

In Bankura, Trinamool candidates have won 31 out of 46 seats in Zilla Parishad. It may be mentioned that a vernacular television channel on Friday began to telecast that out of 46 seats, Trinamool will win in only 13 seats.

However, after the withdrawal of nominations, it was found that Trinamool candidates have won in 31 seats.

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has mentioned the vernacular television channel for circulating false news deliberately.

It has been seen that out of 48,650 Gram Panchayat seats, Trinamool Congress has bagged 16,814 seats uncontested, while in Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad, the party has bagged 3,059 and 203 seats respectively, uncontested.

But despite such success, Trinamool Congress MLAs and MPs are canvassing for their party candidates in the areas under their constituencies.

They are highlighting the projects taken up by Mamata Banerjee for the development or rural Bengal in the past seven years, which include roads, drinking water and scholarships under various schemes.

On Sunday, the leaders were busy holding rallies and visiting the houses of the voters.

The Left Front is yet to publish its manifesto and in the rural areas, an unofficial alliance has been made between them and BJP. Many CPI-M cadres have joined BJP and are contesting in the election.

The Congress is virtually nonexistent in the rural belt except Murshidabad, Malda, Jalpaiguri and North and South Dinajpur.