National desk, 8 July: Amid violence, voting for the West Bengal panchayat election 2023 began at 7 am on July 8 amid tight security with around 5.67 crore individuals residing in the state’s rural districts eligible to vote, according to officials.
Several instances of violence and arson have been reported across the state despite increased security measures.
As many as four Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers were killed on Friday while those from Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) claimed that they were attacked by the rival parties.
A BJP poll worker was shot and killed on Saturday in Cooch Behar and a CPI(M) worker who was injured in violence yesterday passed away in a hospital in Kolkata.
According to reports, there are a total of 2.06 lakh candidates running for 73,887 seats in the state’s three-tiered panchayat system.
Reportedly, around 5.67 crore voters are expected to exercise their right to vote to select members nearly to 928 seats across 22 zilla parishads, 9,730 panchayat samity seats and 63,229 gram panchayats.
The panchayat election which involves over 65% of the state’s population and takes place before the 2024 parliamentary elections, is acting as a litmus test for the state’s political parties and has the potential to completely alter the political landscape of the state.
The majority of the 42 parliamentary seats are located in rural areas of the state, this election is also an opportunity for the parties to assess their booth-level organisation in preparation for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
There are 63,229 gram panchayat seats and 9,730 panchayat samiti seats in 22 districts while 928 zilla parishad seats in 20 districts as Darjeeling and Kalimpong have a two-tier system with Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and Siliguri Sub-divisional Council at the top.
People started showing up early in spite of the sporadic rains, and long lines were seen outside polling places as early as 6 am.