The darkest hour is just before dawn, good will happen in the days to come, said West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Monday following his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah here in the national capital. The meeting is significant as it was scheduled just two days after the violence in West Bengal Panchayat elections which has claimed over a dozen lives in the state.
Bose met with the Home Minister at his North Block office in the national capital. The meeting lasted for nearly 30 minutes. “The darkest hour is just before dawn. There will be light at the end of the tunnel.”
The only message I could get today is – “if winter comes, can spring be far behind? Good will happen in the days to come,” said West Bengal Governor after his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Bose didn’t speak about the violence in West Bengal during the Panchayat polls on Saturday.
Violence mars Bengal Panchayat Polls
Several incidents of violence were reported during the Panchayat polls in Bengal on Saturday. Repolling took place at 697 booths across five districts of the state on Monday. The State Election Commission on Sunday said that police have confirmed 10 deaths in poll-related violence. There were reports of booth capturing, damage to ballot boxes and assault of presiding officers from several districts such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Nadia.
Counting of votes will start at 8 am on Juy 11. All counting centres will have a deployment of Central forces and CCTV cameras installed. To conduct a fair, safe and impartial election for 3317 Gram Panchayats, 341 Panchayat Samitis and 20 Zila Parishads in West Bengal on Saturday, security forces from the Centre, as well as the state, were deployed on all 61,636 polling booths.
The state Election Commission had set up a total of 61,636 polling booths across West Bengal to conduct the election. A total of 59,000 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and other State Armed Police (SAP) forces have been deployed at sensitive polling booths and the rest of the troops of CAPF and SAP along with local State Police were given the responsibility of security at the remaining polling booths. Amid the polling on Saturday in the state several incidents of violence were reported despite the security arrangements
Several other incidents of ballot box and ballot paper looting and destruction were reported on Saturday from numerous polling booths in the state. The repolling in West Bengal concluded today to choose representatives for nearly 928 seats across 22 Zilla Parishads, 9,730 Panchayat Samiti, and 63,239 Gram Panchayat seats.
The number of village Panchayat Election centers is 58,594. There are 63,239 seats at the Gram Panchayat level, 9730 at Panchayat Samiti and 928 at the Zila Parishad level. In 2018, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won uncontested, 34 per cent of the seats in panchayat elections, which also saw various instances of violence. Trinamool Congress has won many seats uncontestedly in the 2023 elections as well. Following the violence, a war of words escalated between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Trinamool Congress.