West Bengal Panchayat elections marred by violence, 12 dead; Here's top developments

livemint.com:

ALSO READ: Elections must be through ballots, not bullets': West Bengal Guv on poll violence 1) 12 people, including eight from the ruling TMC and one worker each of the BJP, CPI(M), and Congress died since midnight in the crucial three-tier panchayat polls. 2) Polling witnessed ballot boxes being stolen and burnt and public anger being vented against political workers.

3) State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rajiv Sinha on Saturday promised to look into complaints of vote tampering and to take a decision on possible re-polling after receiving reports from observers and returning officers. 4) Most affected districts, hit by violence include, Murshidabad, Nadia, Cooch Behar, and South 24 Parganas.

5) Trinamool Congress, which lost eight of its supporters to poll violence, accused the opposition of orchestrating the violence. 6) CPI(M) accused the State Election Commission of enacting a farce in the name of holding panchayat elections and blamed the ruling party for the poll-related deaths.

7) Earlier, 30 people died since polls were announced last month. With agency inputs.