Trinamool Congress candidates began celebrating on Monday, claiming that they were elected unopposed in 41 of 42 seats in the Birbhum zilla parishad and in 14 of 19 panchayat samitis in the district. Opposition parties, however, accused the ruling party of stopping them from filing nominations.
In Kandi in Murshidabad, the TMC won 29 of 30 panchayat samiti seats – all uncontested – while in Bharatpur II, it won all 21 panchayat samiti seats, and in Barwan it bagged all 37 panchayat samiti seats, The Indian Express reported.
Elections to the three-tier local body structure — zilla parishads, panchayat samitis, and gram panchayats are scheduled for May 1, 3 and 5. BJP workers protested outside the West Bengal State Election Commission’s office in Kolkata on Tuesday after the poll panel recalled its earlier order extending the deadline to file nominations for the panchayat elections by a day to April 10, ANI reported. It had extended the last day after the Opposition alleged that its candidates were not being allowed to file their nomination papers.
“Only one of our candidates could file nomination from the Rajnagar seat,” Bharatiya Janata Party’s Birbhum district president Ramkrishna Roy told The Indian Express. “In 14 out of 19 panchayat samitis in the district, not a single opposition candidate could file nomination,” he said. District Congress president Sayed Jimmi also had the same complaint.
Opposition candidates from South 24 Parganas also alleged that TMC workers stopped them from entering the Alipore treasury building in Kolkata and filing their nominations, according to The Indian Express.
Congress candidate from the South 24 Parganas, Nazrul Islam Baig, told the daily he could not file his nomination because of the “terror” of TMC cadre. “As soon as I entered, I saw 50 to 100 young TMC workers blocking the entrance… One of them asked me the purpose of my visit. When I said I had come to file nomination, he and others started pushing me and asked me to move out from there.”
Trinamool Congress’ Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal, however, said his party cannot be responsible if the opposition “is not able to find a candidate”. He added, “If leaders from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress call me, I shall ensure they can file nomination.”
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