Kolkata. The recent results of the West Bengal Panchayat elections were dominated by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The TMC has once again raised its flag by winning a big victory in these elections. However, in some parts of the state, the main and opposition party BJP (BJP) has also won by performing well in some parts of the state. In view of its results, the upcoming for the BJP Lok Sabha Elections 2024 (Lok Sabha Elections-2024) has given a ray of hope in some parts of the state.
According to the report published in the Indian Express, in the meantime, West Bengal Panchayat elections in West Bengal (Panchayat Elections), incidents of violence and arson started coming to light in the state only after the announcement of the GOVERNMENT. During the counting of votes, incidents of explosions were recorded around a polling station. Six more incidents were reported.
The BJP won 100 per cent seats in zila parishads, 92 per cent seats in panchayat samitis and 80 per cent seats in gram panchayats. The lowest panchayat level of the three-tier rural elections Gram Panchayat The TMC won 2,641 of the 3,317 seats and the main opposition BJP won 230 seats.
If we look at the election results, the BJP has done its best in Purba Medinipur district, which is considered to be the home turf of senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari. The BJP won 61 of the 223 gram panchayats in the region. In Nadia district too, the BJP has made its presence felt by winning 44 of the total 185 GPs.
According to the report, the BJP has won in gram panchayats in many districts of Bengal. Malda district has been the worst performing state for the BJP. The BJP has won 15 of the total 146 GPs in Malda. In Behar district, the party won 22 out of the total 128 GPs. In Purulia and Bankura districts, the BJP won 11 and 10 gram panchayats respectively. In the rest of the districts of Bengal, the party has failed to reach the double-digit mark in terms of winning the GP.
As far as the results of panchayat samiti elections are concerned, at the second panchayat level, the BJP has been able to win only 7 out of the total 341 seats across the state. In Purba Medinipur, the BJP won four panchayat samitis and one seat each in Nadia, Malda and Hooghly districts. In these elections, the TMC has dominated the district. The TMC has captured all the 20 Zila Parishads (ZPs) and the BJP and other opposition parties have not got a chance till they open their accounts.
The BJP has managed to win 31 of the total 928 Zila Parishad seats, of which 14 are under Purba Medinipur district. After these election results, it has been assessed that the BJP has managed to perform well in Purba Medinipur district and to some extent Malda district.
In these elections, the BJP has been completely wiped out in South Dinajpur district, considered the home turf of state president Sukant Majumdar, where it could win only four out of the total 64 districts. The party could not win a single panchayat samiti seat in the district.
Meanwhile, in the rural elections, the BJP has suffered defeats, especially in the Jangalmahal and North Bengal regions. They have been considered its stronghold since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections (Lok Sabha polls 2019). At that time, the party had won 18 of the total 42 seats in the state. The BJP had won most of the parliamentary seats from these two regions.
Thus, the results of the panchayat elections have proved to be a big setback for Shubhendu Adhikari. Apart from petitioning the Calcutta High Court on several aspects of rural elections, he has been able to significantly retain his hold in his district in panchayat elections. The BJP, however, downplayed the poll results, saying they did not reflect the “true mandate of the people”.
Suvendu has alleged that it was clear from the beginning that TMC will win in these elections. She indulged in large-scale electoral malpractices and spread terror in the state. He also alleged that the elections were not held in a free and fair manner. Therefore, it cannot be a true reflection of the people’s mandate.
Tmc state general secretary Kunal Ghosh has taken a dig at Suvendu Adhikari over the BJP’s crushing defeat in the rural elections, saying he has now become a block-level leader. He can’t even win panchayat elections for his party. The man had so far said in his chest that he had defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 assembly elections in Nandigram by a margin of 1,956 votes. Talking about the assembly election results, TMC has got a lead of more than 10 thousand votes from Nandigram in the panchayat elections. Where is he hiding now?
