West Bengal Panchayat polls: TMC sees sharp fall in unopposed wins, Opp reads a fine print: ‘Mamata’s hold weakening’

According to the State Election Commission figures, the Mamata Banerjee-led party bagged nearly 7,000 (9.47%) out of the 73,887 seats uncontested.

Of these, the TMC won 6,238 (9.7%) of a total of 63,229 gram panchayat seats, 759 (7.8%) out of the 9,730 panchayat samiti seats, and eight of the 928 (0.86%) zila parishad seats unopposed.

Only five to six seats went to the Opposition parties, it is learnt. Most of the seats where the ruling party won without a contest are in Birbhum, Bankura, Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas districts – most of these districts, especially South 24 Parganas have witnessed clashes and violence.

In the 2018 panchayat elections, the TMC had won 16,814 (34.5%) of the 48,650 gram panchayat seats; 3,059 (33.2%) of the 9,217 panchayat samiti seats; and 203 (24.6%) of the 825 zila parishad seats uncontested.

In the 2018 polls, the TMC won the maximum number of uncontested seats from Birbhum district (90%). This time, the party bagged 30% of the seats unopposed from Birbhum, which is still more than any other district. The party, however, won only one out of 52 zila parishad seats uncontested from the district.

In the zila parishads and panchayat samitis this time, the TMC won only 0.86% and 8.22% seats without a contest, respectively.

A senior TMC leader said, “The zila parishad nominations were filed at the district magistrate offices. This time, the party had instructed to maintain peace at the DM offices. That is why Opposition parties filed more nominations for zila parishads.”

The Opposition parties claimed that they were able to file a higher number of nominations this time since the TMC’s organisational control has weakened.

Rejecting the claim, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, said, “This shows that democracy prevailed in the state. In Tripura, the BJP won 90% of the panchayat seats. Here, more than 2.70 lakh nominations were filed. Do not forget that we are an elected government.”

BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya said, “This is nothing but data gimmickry. They stopped the Opposition candidates from filing nominations in Diamond Harbour.”

Accusing the TMC of using the state machinery to stop Opposition parties from filing nominations or force them to withdraw their nominations, CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “But with the help of people, we were able to file nominations in most of the places. The TMC is scared of an impending defeat.”