Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that 133 individuals who feared for their lives sought refuge in Assam's Dhubri district amid violence in West Bengal during panchayat polls.
"There will be a relentless fight against growing violence in Bengal. Those who commit violence in the field will be made to curse the day they are born. All authorities will come down with a heavy hand on the goons and lawbreakers...", Governor Bose said.
Following re-polling at 696 panchayat booths, after the voting on July 8 was declared void in light of alleged rigging, booth capturing and multiple reports of electoral malfeasance and voter intimidation, the stage is set for the counting of votes in West Bengal on Tuesday.
During repolling for West Bengal panchayats in over 600 booths on Monday, a clip went viral where a woman was purportedly seen helping another cast her vote as she stood with her through the entire process in the vouting cubicle.
Days after the election-related violence in the three-tier West Bengal panchayat polls broke out, claiming several lives across all parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda on Monday nominated a four-member fact-finding committee to visit the affected areas in the stat
The senior BJP MP expressed disappointment over the state of violence in the state. "We will visit the places where violence broke out. We will meet the victims," he said.
The counting of votes for the high-stake West Bengal panchayat election will begin on Tuesday at 8 am, a litmus test for Mamata Banerjee and BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
He further highlighted that the Calcutta High Court had previously directed the State Election Commission to ensure the presence of CCTV cameras and centralized monitoring of footage with police assistance in all polling booths. However, Adhikari alleged that these directives were not follow
A day after the violence-marred Panchayat polls, the West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday conducted re-polling at 696 polling booths, however, no fresh cases of violence were reported as it was under the supervision of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose is scheduled to meet Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday evening, two days after panchayat polls in the state that saw violence