Repolling began across five districts of West Bengal on Monday where the voting for panchayat elections was declared void after allegations of ballot box tampering.
Elections will be held across 696 booths in five districts of Purulia, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, Nadia and South 24 Parganas, under tight security. Four central forces personnel will be deployed in each of those booths besides the state police.
The West Bengal State Election Commission decided to hold a repolling after BJP raised allegations of ballot rigging. BJP MP Khagen Murmu called for re-polling, claiming that presiding officers and election staff were engaged in proxy voting in favour of the Trinamool Congress.
Among the districts where repolling was being held, violence-hit Murshidabad has the highest number of booths at 175, followed by Malda with 109. Polling was held on Saturday in over 61,000 booths for the three-tier panchayat elections but the violence that ensued claimed the lives of over 10 people. Several were injured in the melee after ballot boxes were looted, set on fire and thrown in ponds, leading to violence.
#WATCH | West Bengal panchayat election re-poll | Voters queue up outside the polling booth at Tikiapara Primary High School in Murshidabad to cast their votes.
— ANI (@ANI) July 10, 2023
A voter, Anjana Majumdar says, "The first day there were no central forces. There were just three Police personnel.… pic.twitter.com/aPupguHwj3
Meanwhile, state Governor CV Ananda Bose arrived in Delhi on Sunday night. He will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the widespread violence during the panchayat polls in West Bengal.
When asked about the purpose of his visit, Bose told reporters, "I came here for a simple purpose. As a student, I heard about Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya, somebody told me it was about light at the end of the tunnel. As a humble student, I wanted to ask my professors what it meant."
He will also submit a report on the violence that took place during the panchayat elections in the state. The state governor had visited various places, mostly in North 24 Parganas district, and taken stock of the situation on Saturday during the polling. He had met family members of an injured person and had also visited a hospital, where the person was undergoing treatment.
Bose had earlier condemned the incidents of violence across the state during the panchayat polls and described the situation as "very, very disturbing". "What I have seen in the field is very disturbing. There is violence, murder, and intimidation. One thing I noticed is that it is the poor who are getting killed. Leaders are not there. So, who is driving them? They should kill poverty instead of trying to kill the poor. This is very very disturbing. This is not what Bengal wants or deserves. This is very disturbing that the lack of peace in society will affect the new generation," Bose told reporters after returning to the Raj Bhavan in the evening after the elections.
