'West Bengal Panchayat polls reduced to farce': Opposition hits out at TMC

After the TMC swept the violence-hit Panchayat polls in West Bengal, which saw death of at least 20 people, the Opposition parties including the BJP and Congress have targetted the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

Kolkata (West Bengal): The Opposition parties in West Bengal have lashed out at the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), which swept the violence-hit Panchayat polls in the state, saying the elections were reduced to a farce.

West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday said, "I must say that (the Panchayat) elections have already been reduced to a farce. Macabre dancing of the mockery of democracy was witnessed by all. It was well anticipated."

"According to our apprehension, violence, nexus between the ruling party, police, and the State Election Commission - threatening and intimidation, unprecedented scale of violence has been unleased resulting in the death of more than 40 persons. After the counting, post-poll violence will be unleashed," Chowdhury said.

BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta took a jibe at TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, who thanked the voters, saying he should be grateful to the State Election Commission (SEC) and the state police.

"I think Abhishek Banerjee is thanking the wrong people. He should be thanking the State Election Commissioner, state police, and administration which put their entire weight into ensuring that the TMC won resoundingly in these Panchayat elections by means which were at best, half irregular and at worst, completely irregular," Dasgupta said.

"I think what Abhishek Banerjee really hopes for is that the 2024 general election will be fought with the Election Commissioner who is as useless as this. But fortunately, the Election Commission which will conduct the 2024 election is different and they should learn a lesson from what exactly happened in panchayat elections to understand the extent of irregularities, high-handedness, and rigging which took place," added Dasgupta, a member of the BJP National Executive.

According to Dasputa, the Panchayat polls were a "farce". "It was an assault on democracy. It was a complete travesty of everything India stands for and I hope this will never be repeated in any part of India, at least of all in West Bengal in any other election," he added.

The TMC led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has emerged as the clear winner in the panchayat elections in the state, securing a majority in all three tiers of the rural local government expressing its dominance in 2,552 out of 3,317 gram panchayats, 232 panchayat samitis, and 12 out of 20 zilla parishads till the time of filing this report.

CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the elections proved that TMC does believe in democracy. "Murder of democracy in West Bengal under the TMC government. Strongly condemn. Strengthen popular resistance to save democracy in Bengal and in India," Yechury said in a Tweet.