WB Panchayat Elections 2023 Live Updates: Hello and welcome to ABP Live to get all the LIVE updates from the ground on the upcoming West Bengal Panchayat Polls 2023. State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rajiva Sinha met with Governor C V Ananda Bose on Sunday evening, June 25, at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata amidst incidents of violence in various parts of West Bengal ahead of the panchayat polls. The meeting between Sinha and Bose lasted for over two hours. Earlier, Sinha had failed to appear before Bose when summoned to explain the incidents of murders, violence, and clashes during the nomination filing for the panchayat elections.
Bose had previously criticized the SEC for the alleged lack of proactive measures, expressing disappointment in Sinha’s performance after appointing him to the post.
Opposition parties have accused supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of intimidating and assaulting their candidates to hinder the filing of nomination papers in various locations. The past two weeks have witnessed widespread violence, resulting in at least eight fatalities and numerous injuries across the state. The governor has visited several violence-affected areas.
TMC is preparing to compete in the upcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal amidst a series of corruption allegations. Political analysts view these elections as a preliminary test for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While the TMC acknowledges that the dynamics of the Lok Sabha and village council elections may differ, they consider winning the rural heartland of Bengal as "crucial" to secure a significant number of parliamentary seats and exert influence in national politics next year.
Scheduled for July 8, 2023, the state’s three-tier panchayat elections will involve a substantial electorate of approximately 5.67 crores. Voters will exercise their right to select representatives for nearly 74,000 seats in Zilla Parishads, Panchayat Samitis, and Gram Panchayats. In the previous rural polls held five years ago, the TMC secured 90 percent of the panchayat seats and won all 22 Zilla Parishads.