Panchayat re-poll in 568 booths in West Bengal

KOLKATA: West Bengal State Election Commission has decided to hold re-elections in 568 booths
in 19 of the 20 districts of the state on Wednesday after reports of massive rigging and violence throughout the state during election on Monday.

The final results will be declared in May 17.

The districts which witnessed highest number of deaths and violence on Monday will also see the highest number of booths going to re-polls on Wednesday.

The most number of booths going to re-poll is Uttar Dinajpur district with 73 polling booths. Murshidabad comes second at 63 booths while Nadia comes third at 60 booths. Some 59 booths in North 24 Parganas will go to re-poll whereas 55 booths in Malda and 52 in Coochbehar will see re-poll on Wednesday. These six districts accounted for most of the fatalities on Monday. Re-polling will not be held only in Jhargram district.

Meanwhile, violence continued in parts of south Bengal even after completion of the vote process as the death toll rose to 23 by Tuesday evening. The death toll was 14 till completion of election on Monday evening.

While TMC worker Subid Ali Mollah was lynched allegedly by an irate mob comprising SUCI (C) and BJP workers in South 24 Parganas’ Kultali, another TMC worker Pranab Biswas was hacked to death allegedly by BJP workers in Nadia’s Ranaghat. Two more TMC workers Ujjwal Sur and Sunil Das succumbed to their injuries at Habra in North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday. Three more bullet ridden bodies were recovered from different parts of Malda district.

On the other hand, Calcutta High Court on Tuesday gave a go-ahead to appellants CPM and Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) to file petitions in the court over the violent panchayat elections.

Speaking to media after the hearing, PDS leader Samir Putatundu said: “We told the High Court that the failure to control the violence during the panchayat election was a violation of the High Court order to ensure peaceful election. The court asked us to file a case and present a detailed report of the incidents of violence.”

Meanwhile, 28 BJP workers and 17 TMC workers were arrested in different incidents of violence in North Parganas and Hooghly districts respectively.

However, post-electoral violence continued in a few districts unabated. Some 20 houses were gutted in Bagnan and six shops were gutted in Shyampur in Howrah district on Tuesday morning. On the other
hand, a Purba Medinipur CPM district committee member’s house was vandalised on Monday night.