West Bengal panchayat election 2018: TMC races to early lead in gram panchayat seats

The ruling Trinamool Congress today surged ahead in 1,800 gram panchayat seats while the BJP and the CPI(M) were leading in 100 and 30 gram panchayat seats respectively, as per initial trends available at 10 am, SEC officials said.

The panchayat elections were held for 621 zilla parishads, 6,123 panchayat samitis and 31,802 gram panchayats in West Bengal on May 14. The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security, the State Election Commission officials said. Of the 48,650 seats in 3,358 gram panchayats, 16,814 were uncontested and of the 9,217 seats in 341 panchayat samitis, 3,059 were uncontested. In the 20 zilla parishads, 203 of the 825 seats were uncontested, the sources said. 

Counting of votes for Panchayat Election in West Bengal has started in North Bengal's Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Malda. Counting of votes has also resumed in the counting centre in North 24 Parganas, where it got delayed. The Panchayat Polls witnessed a massive violence which claimed at least 12 lives. After the state witnessed violence in a number of places during the panchayat polls held on May 14, re-polling was held on Wednesday in 568 panchayat election booths spread across 19 districts of the state. The booths, where re-polling took place, include 63 in Murshidabad, 52 in Coochbehar, 28 in West Midnapore and 10 in Hooghly among.