West Bengal is gearing up for the panchayat polls which are scheduled for July 8. The voting will be held in a single phase across the state, the Election Commission announced.
Next month, the gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads will all go to the elections in Bengal. This is being seen as a curtain raiser ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Also Read: West Bengal Panchayat Election Result Live Updates
The filing of nominations for the upcoming polls began on June 9. It has been marred with clashes and bouts of violence between the contesting parties across districts. The Opposition parties have alleged the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been forcefully restricting them from filing their nominations.
Here is all you need to know about the West Bengal Panchayat elections next month
How many Panchayat seats are going to the polls?
West Bengal has a total of 3,317 gram panchayats. During the state’s three-tier panchayat polls, 928 seats across 22 zilla parishads, 9,730 panchayat samiti seats, and 63,229 gram panchayats seats will witness contests.
What is the nomination deadline?
The State Election Commission (SEC) on June 8 notified that the nomination for the panchayat polls will start on June 9 and will go on till June 15.
The Opposition parties had moved the Calcutta High Court seeking extension of dates for filing nominations. During the hearing on June 9, the Calcutta HC division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya urged the SEC to extend the nomination period and observed that the time given for filing nominations for the three-tier rural elections was “prima facie inadequate”. The State Election Commission, in an affidavit, however, told the High Court on Monday that it could extend the last date for filing nominations by only a day to June 16.
The Calcutta HC reserved its order on the bunch of PILs, saying “it shall issue appropriate directions to ensure that the nominations are filed in a proper manner”. However, the HC refused to extend the last date of filing nominations for the panchayat polls and left the matter to the discretion of the SEC.
When will the results be declared?
The counting of votes polled in the West Bengal Panchayat elections will take place on July 11.
When were the last panchayat polls held?
The last panchayat polls were held in 2018 which witnessed large-scale violence with Opposition parties alleging that their candidates were not allowed to file nominations and intimidated. The TMC bagged around 90 per cent seats, of which 34 per cent were uncontested.