Kolkata: 9 AM: Counting is over for all 17 Zilla Parishads. The Trinamool Congress has won absolute majority and will be forming boards in 13 districts while the Left and Congress will be forming boards in one district each. There is hung result in two districts as none of the parties could claim majority.
12:15 AM: The TMC appeared set to sweep the crucial panchayat poll in West Bengal with a huge margin in most of the districts, taking a comfortable lead in gram panchayat in 13 of 17 districts. The initial gram panchayat results showed that the TMC had swept 10 out of 11 south Bengal districts and two north Bengal districts, demonstrating that the two and a half years of incumbency and controversies, including the Saradha chit fund scam, had by and large failed to sway the rural people's faith on the Mamata Banerjee government.
10:20 PM: The TMC maintained its lead in 10 out of 11 districts in south Bengal (except Murshidabad) and also showed strong performance in Cooch Bihar and South Dinajpur districts in north Bengal in terms of the number of gram panchayat seats won.
7:45 pm: Seen as a prelude to Lok Sabha elections and a litmus test for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the ruling Trinamool Congress has taken a massive lead in 13 of 17 districts in West Bengal.
6:47 pm: The Trinamool Congress has taken a massive lead and is now leading in 1179 gram panchayat seats. The TMC has taken major leads in West Medinipur (leading in 215 seats), Bankura (leading in 143 seats), Bardhaman (leading in 140 seats) and East Medinipur (leading in 121 seats). However, in Murshidabad, the Congress is ahead of the TMC, leading in 101 seats, with the Left Front at second place leading in 88 seats. Meanwhile, in Malda and Jalpaiguri, the Left Front is ahead of the TMC and the Congress, leading in 27 and 37 seats respectively.
4:30 pm:The Trinamool Congress has increased its lead and is now leading in 801 gram panchayat seats. The TMC has taken major leads in East Medinipur (leading in 83 seats), Hooghly (leading in 62 seats) and Bardhaman (leading in 117 seats). However, in Murshidabad, the Congress is ahead of the TMC, leading in 51 seats, with the Left Front at second place leading in 37 seats, whereas the TMC is leading only in 8 seats. Meanwhile, in Malda and Jalpaiguri, the Left Front is ahead of the TMC and Congress, leading in 25 and 18 seats respectively.
1:10 pm: The TMC has held on to its lead and is now leading in 584 gram panchayat seats. The party has taken major leads in Bankura (leading in 71 seats) and West Midnapore (leading in 70 seats). However, in Malda, the Left was ahead of TMC, leading in 21 seats. In Murshidabad, the Congress was leading in in 39 seats, followed by the Left (37) and TMC (8).
11:11 am: After the first three hours of counting, the Trinamool Congress continues to lead in 497 gram panchayat seats, followed by the Left Front, which is now leading in 262 seats. In Bankura, the TMC was leading in 45 seats while West Midnapore, the party was leading in 53 seats. The TMC took a huge lead in East Midnapore, where it is ahead in 51 seats, followed by the Left, which is ahead in 10 seats. The Congress is leading in 162 seats in all.
9:14 am: The Trinamool Congress has taken an early lead in the Gram Panchayats and was leading in 331 seats. The party took major leads in East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Birbhoom and Bankura. In Birbhoom, the TMC was leading in 43 seats. The Left front wqas leading in 150 seats in all in the early counting hours, followed by the Congress, leading in 77 seats. The BJP was far behind and was leading in 3 seats in all.
The counting in the five-phased West Bengal panchayat polls began on Monday morning amidst heightened security. The result will decide the fate of 1.69 lakh candidates, of which around 90,000 are women.
The massive exercise to determine the results for village councils - the third tier of India's electoral system - has been taken up by around 98,000 personnel in 329 counting centres - one in each block - across the rural areas of the state.
Up for grabs are 58,865 seats, for which an impressive 84.56 per cent of the 4.4 crore electorate cast their franchise in five phases - July 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25.
There are in all 755 Zilla Parishad (district councils) constituencies spread over 17 Zilla Parishads, 8,864 Panchayat Samity constituencies in 341 Panchayat Samities and 36,016 Gram Panchayat constituencies in 3,354 Gram Panchayats.
With at least 24 people dying in poll-related violence since round one of the elections, the authorities have deployed 4,500 central armed security forces besides a large army of state police personnel.
While the central forces on guard in the counting centres, the state police personnel have been deployed to maintain peace outside.
The polls were held in the backdrop of intriguing court battles between two constitutional bodies - the West Bengal government and the State Election Commission, violence and complaints of terror, rigging and intimidation mostly against the ruling Trinamool Congress,
Politically, the polls are significant in the wake of the triangular fights between the Trinamool, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front (LF) and the Congress, with the latter two charging the Trinamool with having adopted tactics of coercion and intimidation to win the elections "unethically".
To buttress their point, the opposition parties have been referring to the Trinamool winning about 6,250 seats uncontested and alleged that their representatives were not allowed to file nomination.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that the elections were free and fair, with the violence at a much lower scale than in previous elections. She has, however, claimed that the opposition tried to create unrest in some pockets.
In the 2008 elections, the LF bagged 13 zilla parishads, and the Congress and the Trinamool two each. However, this time the Trinamool was hoping to turn the script around by winning 13 Zilla parishads. CPI-M sources claimed that things could be tough for the LF, but still it would bag "at least two zilla parishads". The Congress was also in the race in two-three zilla parishads.
(With additional information from IANS)####
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