The counting for high-stake West Bengal Panchayat elections is set to take place today after violence and arson severely affected the voting at several booths across the state. Incidents of killing, burning of ballot boxes, and clashes continues to surface even when voting was underway. This prompted the Bengal State Election Commission to hold re-polling at 696 booths on Monday. The Commission said that ballot papers without the signature of the Presiding Officer and the distinguishing mark rubber stamp affixed at the back of the ballot paper will be considered to be invalid and will not be counted as valid. As per PTI, at least 18 people were reported dead in poll-related violence.
BJP on Monday appointed a four-member fact-finding committee to visit the violence-affected areas in West Bengal tomorrow, where at least 18 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. 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.
Amidst reports of violence during polling in West Bengal, Governor C V Ananda Bose on Monday met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, where the governor presented a report concerning the violence that took place during the panchayat elections in the state, reported news agency PTI. Soon after the meeting concluded, Bose said, “The darkest hour is just before dawn. There will be light at the end of the tunnel. The only message I could get today is -if winter comes can spring be far behind? Good will happen in the days to come.”
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said he is collecting evidence of alleged malpractice in several thousands of booths during the polling and will move the Calcutta High Court, stated the PTI report. “We had submitted a list of 6,000 booths to the SEC recommending repoll. Actually, false voting had taken place in 18,000 booths at the behest of the Trinamool Congress. We are collecting more evidence… video footage and everything,” Adhikari told reporters, quoted PTI.
Many 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. 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.
