The Trinamool Congress has won a huge 20,076 out of 58,692 seats uncontested – accounting for 34 per cent of the seats – in West Bengal’s rural polls. Voting is scheduled on May 14, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal has moved court demanding that voting should not be held in a single phase.
Earlier, the voting was scheduled for three days, but was rescheduled on May 14. The Opposition has sought security for the candidates filing nomination.
Once the nomination filing procedure was complete, it emerged that the Trinamool Congress alone had won 34 per cent of the seats uncontested – the highest number of uncontested seats from the Birbhum district alone.
This is not the first time such a thing has happened in Bengal. In the last panchayat election, Trinamool Congress bagged 10 per cent seats uncontested. Ten years back, the ruling Left Front had won 11 per cent seats unopposed.
The nomination-filing process has been violent – two persons have died during this time with allegations and counter allegations from different political parties. The Trinamool Congress, being the ruling party, had been accused of creating an atmosphere of fear, intimidation and violence in the state. This was then followed by opposition parties approaching the Calcutta High Court seeking intervention and the Court ordering the State Election Commission (SEC) to issue a fresh date for filing nominations. The opposition parties have also demanded deployment of Central paramilitary forces on the poll day.
