 "WB Panchayat Election 2023: Repolling underway in nearly 700 booths of 5 districts")
synopsis
WB panchayat elections 2023: On Sunday, BJP MP Khagen Murmu reportedly said that the ongoing West Bengal panchayat polls were marred by proxy voting. By-polls that were disturbed by massive violence on Sunday, also saw some presiding officers and election staff engaged in proxy voting in favour of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the BJP leader said.
Repolling in underway on Monday (July10) two days after panchayat polls violence took lives of ten people in West Bengal. The State Election Commission (SEC) is conduct re-polling in as many as 697 booths in five districts. Re-polling are conducted in Purulia, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, Nadia and South 24 Parganas in West Bengal.
In a statement, the SEC said, "The West Bengal State Election Commission, in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by sub-section (3) and sub-section (4) of Section 67 of the said Act, hereby fixes 10th day of July, 2023 as the date of taking the fresh poll at 07.00 hours to be continued up to 17.00 hours uninterruptedly till completion and direct the District Panchayat Election Officer to fix the polling station at which poll shall be taken."
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On Sunday, BJP MP Khagen Murmu reportedly said that the ongoing West Bengal panchayat polls were marred by proxy voting. By-polls that were disturbed by massive violence on Sunday, also saw some presiding officers and election staff engaged in proxy voting in favour of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the BJP leader said.
West Bengal BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay also wrote to SEC and demanded repolling.
In a letter, Chattopadhyay said, "You will recollect yesterday the BJP WB delegation called on you and asked you to review CCTV/video footage to establish booths which have to be re-polled due to booth, looting, polling officers seen participating/helping in rigging/where BJP candidates agents were forced to leave or removed from polling stations."
West Bengal voted to elect their representatives at Panchayat level on Saturday. However, the twenty out of thirty districts were marked by widespread violence, which included looting of ballots papers and riging. The 7 new districts which were included last year are- Sunderban, Ichhemati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Jangipur, and Behrampur and one more district will be named in Basirhat.
According to various reports, there were reports of booth capturing, damaging of ballot boxes and assault of presiding officers from several districts such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Nadia.
On Saturday, West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury blamed TMC for unleashing a reign of terror in the state in an unprecedented way.
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"The ruling party's incoherence with the police administrations...has unleashed a reign of terror in an unprecedented way, which has taken a toll on 26 people, and hundreds of people who are fatally injured have been admitted to the hospital already. The political and electoral environment in Bengal has been violent...It is a travesty of panchayat elections and virtually it is an example of electoral depredations," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary said.
Re-polling in West Bengal began at 7 am amid tight security in 73,887 seats in rural areas of West Bengal with 5.67 crore people deciding the fate of around 2.06 lakh candidates.
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