TMC victorious on 1,767 uncontested seats in Bengal panchayat election amid intense violence

In the West Bengal Panchayat elections, TMC candidates have won a record number of seats without any competition in the Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, and Zilla Parishad in South 24 Parganas district.

After the completion of the nomination and scrutiny process for the Panchayat elections, the Election Commission has released the final candidate list where South 24 Parganas is leading in terms of uncontested seats. TMC candidates in South 24 Parganas district have secured a record number of uncontested victories across Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, and Zilla Parishad. The state witnessed the highest incidents of violence during the nomination period.

In the Panchayat elections, the opposition, except for the ruling party, failed to field their candidates on 100% of the seats at the Gram Sabha and Panchayat Samiti levels. According to the Election Commission's data, there are a total of 6,383 Gram Panchayat seats in South 24 Parganas. Out of these, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has won uncontested on 1,767 seats. The district has a total of 926 Panchayat Samiti seats, out of which TMC has already won uncontested on 233 seats. Similarly, TMC has won uncontested on 8 out of 85 seats in the Zilla Parishad.

TMC's uncontested victories on record number of seats: In the 1998 and 2003 Panchayat elections, the ruling party Trinamool Congress had secured uncontested victories in Howrah, Hooghly, two Medinipur districts, two 24 Parganas districts, and several districts in North Bengal.

According to the commission's list, a total of 8,002 Gram Panchayat seats, 991 Panchayat Samiti seats, and 16 Zilla Parishad seats were won uncontested across the state. Voting is taking place for 63,229 Gram Panchayat, 9,730 Panchayat Samiti, and 928 Zilla Parishad seats.