Amid widespread pre-poll violence and after several court interventions, the crucial three-tier panchayat polls will be held in West Bengal on Saturday. The panchayat election will be a litmus test for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool government ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. The polls come at a time when the ruling party is facing various charges of corruption and a number of its leaders have been arrested by CBI and ED.
Around 5.67 crore voters are expected to cast ballots for nearly 928 seats spread among 22 zilla parishads, 9,730 panchayat samities, and 63,229 gramme panchayats, PTI reported.
Since the polls were announced on June 8, there has been extensive violence in various sections of the state, resulting in the deaths of over a dozen individuals.
Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee led the party's campaign, emphasising the need to avoid strong-arm tactics by its cadres and allow more democratic space to political opponents.
Sukanta Majumdar, national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, and leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari headed the BJP's campaign, while state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim led their respective parties' campaigns.
With a small presence in areas of North and South 24 Parganas, the Indian Secular Front's campaign was spearheaded by its lone MLA Nawsad Siddique. Skirmishes between the ISF and ruling TMC in Bhangor in South 24 Parganas were reported during campaigning.
For the first time, Raj Bhavan took an active part in resolving the issue of poll violence, with Governor C V Ananda Bose establishing a 'Peace Home' at the governor's residence to address aam aadmi grievances.
The Raj Bhavan inhabitant was spotted hurrying to violence-stricken districts to console victims and their relatives, earning praise from the BJP but attracting condemnation from the ruling TMC.
For the second time since the Panchayati Raj system was established in Bengal in the late 1970s, elections for village council representatives will be place under the careful eye of government authorities.
According to authorities, almost 65,000 active central police officers and 70,000 state police officers would be deployed for the elections.
"BJP seems to forget that people vote and not the central forces. If the BJP doesn't have the support of people, no matter how many central forces you seek, the mandate will not change," Abhishek Banerjee was quoted by PTI in its report.
Despite a significant deployment of federal forces, the TMC won more than 85% of the seats in the 2013 panchayat elections.
The TMC won 90% of panchayat seats and all 22 zilla parishads in the 2018 rural elections. These elections, however, were plagued by extensive violence and irregularities, with the opposition saying that they were barred from filing nominations in numerous seats.
"The TMC wants to make the rural polls a replay of 2018, but we won't allow this to happen this time. BJP will defeat the TMC," Majumdar said.
According to Chowdhury, the TMC's "grab-all mindset," with no room for any sort of dissent, has resulted in this chaotic condition.
CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty agreed, saying voters will reject both the TMC and the BJP.
The subject of corruption in rural bodies, as well as the Centre's suspension of MGNREGA payments, dominated the campaign, which concluded on Thursday.
The rural polls, which encompass about 65 percent of the state's population, also provide parties one last chance to assess their booth-level organisation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, since the majority of the state's 42 parliamentary seats are located in rural regions.
Elections will be held for nearly 75,000 seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system. Results will be announced on July 11.