17 May, 17:18 (IST)

The ruling Trinamool Congress clean sweeps West Bengal panchayat polls. The party wins most of the Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samiti seats. The voting for 31,802 Gram Panchayat seats, 6,123 Panchayat Samiti seats and 621 Zilla Parishad seats were held yesterday.

17 May, 15:40 (IST)

The ruling Trinamool Congress has been declared winner from Purdha Bardhaman Zilla Parishad. Earlier, the party was also declared winner from the Purdha Bardhaman panchayat samiti polls.

17 May, 15:32 (IST)

While voting was initially scheduled to be held for 825 zilla parishad seats in 17 districts, no elections could be conducted in 203 seats where no Opposition candidate had entered the fray. The candidates of Trinamool were declared winner by default. The Supreme Court, however, t=stayed the notification on results from seats where no voting was held. 

17 May, 15:10 (IST)

TMC is leading in 204 seats of zilla parishad, as per reports. A total of 622 zilla parishad seats are being contested in the state, spread over a total of 17 districts. 

17 May, 14:58 (IST)

The counting of votes for the zilla parishad seats begun late, as the SEC first opened up all ballots related to the gram panchayat, followed by the panchayat samitis.

Kolkata, May 16: The counting of votes for West Bengal panchayat Elections 2018 are begun at 7 am, and are currently underway. Stay tuned here to get the latest updates on the results of zilla parishad polls. A total of 622 zilla parishad seats were contested on May 14 across 17 districts of the state.

Voting for West Bengal panchayat polls was held on Monday. A voter turnout of 72.5 percent was recorded at the end of the polling at 5 p.m. The Election Commission will announce the results of the polls later in the day.

The voting for the rural bodies in West Bengal was to be held on May 1, 3 and 5 but as the nomination process started in April, it was rescheduled to May 14 by the SEC. The rescheduling came after a Calcutta High Court order to extend the nomination deadline and announce a fresh polling date.

As per details by West Bengal State Election Commission of the 2013 Elections, the Left Front won 2 Zilla Parishads (of the 17 contested), 20 Panchayat Samitis and 708 Gram Panchayat whereas the Congress was victorious in 2 Zilla Parishads, 66 in Panchayat Samitis and 233 Gram Panchayats. The data reveals that TMC had bagged 13 Zilla Parishads, 214 Panchayat Samitis and 1783 Gram Panchayats.

According to an IANS report, statistics reveal that of the total 58,692 seats in the three tiers of the rural local bodies, 20,076 seats, or 34.2 per cent, have been decided uncontested, with the Trinamool bagging a whopping proportion of these seats. These include 16,814 of the total 48,650-gram panchayats seats, 3,059 of the 9,217 panchayat Samiti seats and 203 of the 825 Zila Parishad seats. The Supreme Court has now asked the SEC not to issue winning certificates in these seats.