Bengal Panchayat Election 2023 HIGHLIGHTS — SEC Says Will Look Into Poll Violence Complaints, Demands For Repolling
Bengal Panchayat Election 2023 HIGHLIGHTS: Hello and welcome to ABP Live's West Bengal Panchayat Poll Live Blog. Follow this space for all the latest updates and news on Bengal Panchayat polls.
Background
Bengal Panchayat Election 2023 HIGHLIGHTS: Hello and welcome to ABP Live's West Bengal Panchayat Poll Live Blog. Follow this space for all the latest updates and news on Bengal Panchayat polls. The state on Saturday is scheduled to undergo polls for 75,000 seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system, the results of which will be announced on July 11. Almost 61,000 polling stations have been set up in 20 districts of the state for three tiers single-phase polling for Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad.
Whereas, two-tier polling will be conducted in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of the state.
At present there are 825 Zilla Parishad constituencies in 20 Zilla Parishads and 1 Mahakuma Parishad. Apart from this, there are 9,240 Panchayat Samiti constituencies in 341 Panchayat Samiti and 48,751 Gram Panchayat constituencies in 3,354 Gram Panchayat.
For the rural body polls, 2,36,464 candidates have filed their nomination and the polling will start from 7 am till 5 pm.
The build-up to the polls saw a series of violence in the state with Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, and Trinamool Congress trading blames on each other.
In view of the volatile situation in the state, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the State Election Commission (SEC) to deploy Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) during the polls.
As per the directions, booths will have 50% CISF and state police respectively, out of which, 65000 will be central forces, and 70000 state forces.
The Chief Justice's division bench directed the IG BSF and the nodal officers that each booth will have 50% central forces personnel and 50% state police. Central forces will remain deployed till the counting of votes.
Earlier last week, Union Ministry of Home Affairs had announced that 315 central armed forces companies would be deployed in West Bengal for the forthcoming panchayat elections on July 8.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and Railway Protection Force (RPF) have been deployed in parts of the state where violenc took place during the nomination process.
'We Should Kill Poverty But We're Killing The Poor': Bengal Guv On Poll-Violence
"What I have seen on the ground is very disturbing, there is violence & murder...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...": West Bengal Governor CV Anand Bose to ANI.
66% Polling Recorded Till 5pm
According to ABP News, 66 per cent polling was recorded till 5pm.
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