Bengal Panchayat Poll Violence: BJP's 4-Member Fact-Finding Team To Visit State Tomorrow

The committee will visit the affected areas and report to BJP National President JP Nadda at the earliest.

The committee will visit the affected areas and report to BJP National President JP Nadda at the earliest. ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: BJP on Monday appointed a four-member fact-finding committee to visit the violence-affected areas in West Bengal tomorrow, where at least 15 people were killed during the panchayat elections on Saturday. The committee will visit the affected areas and report to BJP National President JP Nadda at the earliest. Earlier, the panel was scheduled to visit on counting day but owing to the counting of the polls, the visit has been postponed.

According to ANI, the four-member fact-finding committee of BJP, including party MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, which is scheduled to visit the violence-affected areas in West Bengal will visit the state on July 12.

The four-member team will be led by former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The committee will include Satyapal Singh, Rajdeep Roy, and Rekha Verma.

#WATCH | "We have formed a committee and we will go there (West Bengal) and review the situation of the state...We hope we are allowed to go there. I would like to repeat we will go if we are allowed," says BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad pic.twitter.com/IypIS4bdVg

— ANI (@ANI) July 10, 2023

Meanwhile, Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah today in Delhi, where he will present a report on the violence that took place in the state, reported news agency PTI.

According to an official, Bose has prepared a report on his views after visiting violence-hit areas in the backdrop of the rural polls.

The West Bengal panchayat polls were marred by violence, both in the run-up to the elections and on election day. As clashes and incidents of booth capturing were reported in various districts, at least 18 people were reported dead in poll-related violence.

Ten members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were killed, three each from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, and two each from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), as per ANI.

Several instances of ballot box vandalism and destruction were also reported throughout the day. Ballot boxes and ballot papers were set on fire at a booth in Baravita Govt Primary School in the Dinhata area of Cooch Behar district, ANI reported. 

“…One thing I have noticed is that it is the poor people who get killed, the killers are also poor...we should kill poverty but instead we're killing the poor...this is not what Bengal deserves,” ANI quoted Bose as saying.

Bose has accused State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rajiva Sinha of failing to discharge his duties during the panchayat elections.