Trinamool Congress(TMC) Sweeps West Bengal Panchayat Polls Monday July 29,2013

 

Counting Begins for Bengal Panchayat Polls Monday July 29,2013

 

Up for grabs are 58,865 seats, for which an impressive 84.56% of the 4.4 crore electorate cast their franchise in five phases - July 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25

There are in all 755 Zilla Parishad (district councils) constituencies spread over 17 Zilla Parishads, 8,864 Panchayat Samity constituencies in 341 Panchayat Samities and 36,016 Gram Panchayat constituencies in 3,354 Gram Panchayats

In the 2008 elections, the Left Frony won 13 zilla parishads, and the Congress and the TMC two eachCounting for the West Bengal panchayat polls began on Monday, 329 counting centres have been set up, which by Monday evening will decide the fate of 1.69 lakh candidates with around 90,000 of them women

Initial trends putting ruling TMC in the lead in most of the districts.Of the total 58,865 seats going to polls, 6,274 have been won uncontested, a majority by the Trinamool Congress.West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress has swept the five-phase panchayat elections, including Left strongholds like Burdwan, Bankura and Purulia

In the 3-tier panchayat system, the zilla parishad is what controls the district. Of the 17 districts that went to the polls, the Trinamool has won zilla parishads in 13 districts, the Left has got one (Jalpaiguri) and the Congress too, has scored one (Murshidabad). Two other districts -- Malda and North Dinajpur -- are hung.

Out of 329 panchayat samitis, Trinamool grabbed 192, the Left, 64 and the Congress 20. Independents and others got 22. Some results are still pending.

In the lowest tier, the gram panchayat, the Trinamool has won 1745 out of 3215 or a whopping 54 per cent.  Its poorest showing was in the Murshidabad (8), Malda (10) and North Dinajpur (10) districts.
But the Trinamool won two north Bengal districts -- Cooch Behar and South Dinajpur -- and even gave a tough fight in Jalpaiguri which was won by the Left.

The results suggest that two and a half years of incumbency and controversies, including the Saradha chit fund scam, have by and large failed to sway the rural people's faith in the Mamata Banerjee government.