- Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Among those killed were five belonging to the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE eastern Indian state of West Bengal witnessed yet another violent election on Saturday (8) as at least 11 people were killed in local rural body elections that are happening less than a year before the 2024 general elections.
Among those killed were six belonging to the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and one each of the opposition — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress, Left and the Indian Secular Front — and an Independent candidate, according to official sources.
The TMC, which is a major anti-BJP party in the country, said the central forces sent from New Delhi that were tasked with security were a complete failure. Several people were also injured in the clashes while ballot boxes were destroyed in at least two polling booths, the PTI reported.
Around 5.67 crore (56.7 million) people are eligible to cast ballots in the elections to nearly 930 seats across three tiers of the panchayati raj elections (three-tier rural governance institutions in India) that included 22 zilla parishads, 9,730 panchayat samitis and 63,229 gram panchayats.
Widespread violence was reported from across Bengal after the polls were announced a month ago. Fifteen people, including a teenager, died in the pre-poll violence, PTI reported.
TMC top brass, including Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the party’s national general secretary, had stressed on ensuring a more democratic environment in this election unlike in the last one in 2018 when the ruling party had won 34 per cent of the seats uncontested.
The state’s governor, CV Ananda Bose, also played an active role to address the issue of poll violence, which is common in Bengal, by setting up a “peace home” at his official residence in Kolkata, the state capital.
