Ballot Boxes Found At Counting Centre Days After Bengal Panchayat Results, Congress Says Elections Farce
Three sealed and uncounted ballot boxes were recovered from a high school at Gajol in state’s Malda district on Tuesday morning.
Days after the conclusion of West Bengal panchayat elections, three sealed and uncounted ballot boxes were recovered from a high school at Gajol in state’s Malda district on Tuesday morning. The boxes were kept in a classroom which was converted into a counting centre for the recently concluded elections, news agency PTI reported citing sources. Reacting to the recovery of the ballot boxes, Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said it only proves that the panchayat polls have been a farce in the name of democracy. He said the sealed boxes should have been under the supervision of a returning officer, which is ideally the BDO.
"I demand strict action against the officer concerned as results have already been declared without counting the votes in those three boxes," Bhattacharya said, as quoted by PTI. Echoing the Congress leader, CPI(M) leader Tanmoy Bhattacharya also said the panchayat polls was a farce.
He said it shows the desperation of the ruling Trinamool Congress to wrest power in the rural countryside. The TMC secured a massive victory in the July 8 panchayat elections, as reported by PTI. It has won all the 20 zila parishads, bagging 880 seats, while its nearest rival BJP won 31 seats of the total 928.
The Congress-Left Front alliance secured 15 seats while others won the remaining two seats. The ruling party emerged victorious in over 6,450 panchayat samiti seats. The BJP has won nearly 1,000 seats, while the CPI(M) and the Congress have won over 180 and 260 seats. The TMC won over 35,000 gram panchayat seats out of the total 63,219. The BJP won nearly 10,000 seats, while the Left-Congress bagged about 6,000 seats in the elections that were marred by incidents of violence in various parts of the state.
Last week Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the poll violence that took place during the Panchayat elections in the state and said that her politics has become uglier than the politics of the Left parties. "Mamata ji's politics has become uglier than the politics of the Left parties. Why have your politics become full of atrocities? We need an answer. Court has to intervene during every election in the state," Prasad said, as quoted by the news agency ANI.
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.
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