West Bengal Panchayat Elections 2023: Amid violence TMC, BJP, ISF gear up for litmus test
West Bengal serves as a litmus test for the 2024 parliamentary elections and holds the power to reshape the state's political landscape. The rural polls, which cover nearly 65 per cent of the state's population, also provide parties with a final opportunity to assess their booth-level organisation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, as most of the 42 parliamentary seats are situated in rural areas of the state.
Around 5.67 crore voters are likely to exercise their franchise to choose representatives for nearly 928 seats across 22 zilla parishads, 9,730 panchayat samities, and 63,229 gram panchayats seats. The voting will be held on 8 July.
Counting of votes will be held on July 11. Since the day the polls were announced on June 8, widespread violence was reported in various parts of the state leading to the death of over a dozen people, including a teenager.
On Friday it was reported that a Congress worker in Murshidabad had been beaten to death and his family attacked. Governor Ananda Bose visited the violence stricken areas on Friday. For the first time, Raj Bhavan played an active role in addressing the issue of poll violence, with Governor C V Ananda Bose opening a 'Peace Home' at the governor's house to address complaints of the commoners.
The Raj Bhavan occupant was seen rushing to violence-hit areas to assuage the victims and their families, drawing a pat from the BJP and criticism from the ruling TMC. Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee led the party's campaign while stressing the need to shun strong-arm tactics by its cadres and allow more democratic space to the political opponents, to avoid the rerun of the 2018 rural polls when it had
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