Counting of votes in West Bengal: Trinamool way ahead till 3pm

Kolkata: As the counting for the elections for the three- tier panchayat system in West Bengal is underway on Tuesday, the trend till 3 p.m. showed that ruling Trinamool Congress was way ahead of opposition in grabbing the seats.

The trend also shows that there is a tight contest between BJP and Congress- Left Front combined for the second position in the rural civic body polls. Sources from the West Bengal State Election Commission said that till now the counting for the Gram Panchayat, which is the lowest tier in the three- tier panchayat system, is going on.

“After the counting process for the lowest tier is over, there will be counting for the remaining two tiers, namely panchayat samiti and zilla parishad. Under no circumstance the final picture will be clear before Wednesday afternoon or even later. By tonight, at maximum the picture for the gram panchayat level will be clear,” a commission official said in relation to the counting of votes in West Bengal

Till 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the ruling Trinamool Congress was well ahead of the opposition parties bagging victory in as many as 15,582  gram panchayat seats (figure includes the uncontested ones). While BJP alone has bagged victory in as many as 1,442  seats, the Congress- Left Front combine had emerged as victors in 1,169 seats with Congress at 411 and Left Front at 758. Others, which include AISF and independents have emerged victors from 445 seats.

In case of panchayat samiti, the second tier in the three- tier panchayat system for which the counting is yet to start, Trinamool Congress is already a lap ahead forging uncontested victory 981 seats and independents winning ten seats.

In case of the highest Tier of zilla parishad, for which also the counting is yet to begin, Trinamool Congress has already bagged 16 seats uncontested in counting of votes in West Bengal.