West Bengal Panchayat Elections 2018: Of 58,692 Rural Seats, TMC Wins 34.2 Per Cent Without Contest

Kolkata, April 30: Amid the Opposition charging the Mamata Banerjee government of misusing the state machinery to "rig the rural polls", the data released by the State Election Commission reveals startling facts. Of the 58,692 seats to be contested in the single-phase West Bengal panchayat elections on May 14, the ruling TMC has already won 34.2 percent of them without a contest.

The seats were awarded to the TMC by the Commission as no Opposition candidate filed their nominations. While the Trinamool has attributed this to the "development agenda" of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the erstwhile ruling party - CPI(M) - said "democracy has been murdered in the state".

Trinamool general secretary and urban development minister Firhad Hakim said there is an "unprecedented wave" in favour of Mamata Banerjee in rural Bengal. "The rural Bengal will not allow anyone to dislodge the TMC," he said.

CPM chief Sitaram Yechury, however, said the Trinamool government is masking its "goondaism" in the name of popular goodwill. "TMC is killing democracy in Bengal. Our party will continue to resist TMC's goondaism and brutal misuse of state power," Yechury added.

Bengal panchayat polls: How data is stacked up in favour of TMC?

- Of the 48,650 gram panchayat seats to be contested in the state, the Trinamool has been declared winner unopposed in 34.6 per cent or 16,814 seats,

- Of the 9,217 panchayat samiti seats, the TMC has won 33.2 per cent or 3,059 among them without a contest.

- Similarly, the ruling party has won 203 of the 825 zilla parishad seats uncontested. This translates to roughly 24.6 per cent of the total zilla parishad seats in the fray.

According to pollsters, the 203 zilla parishad seats roughly translate to 70 assembly segments or 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. In the last panchayat elections, only 13 zilla parishad seats were won unopposed. Meanwhile, in 2008, only 9 zilla parishad seats went uncontested.

Statistics raise question on the TMC regime

The statistics from all panchayat elections over the past three decades raise an alarm bell over the number of seats won uncontested this year. During the Left Front rule, which last from 1977 to 2011, the maximum amount - 11 per cent - seats were won without contest in 2003. The figures have jumped to near-three fold under the incumbent TMC government.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 30, 2018 03:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).