WB governor arrives in Delhi, likely to meet Home Minister Amit Shah

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Sunday arrived in the national capital on Sunday night.

Governor Bose is likely to call on Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the widespread violence during the panchayat polls in West Bengal.

To a question on the purpose of his visit to New Delhi, CV Ananda Bose told reporters, "I came here for a simple purpose. As a student, I heard about Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya, somebody told me it was about light at the end of the tunnel. As a humble student, I wanted to ask my professors what it meant."

Multiple incidents of violence were reported on the polling day casting a long shadow on the conduct of the panchayat polls across the state.

 

Meanwhile, West Bengal State Election Commission on Sunday said that police have confirmed 10 deaths in poll-related violence across the state.

Earlier, on Sunday, the State Election Commission (SEC) announced re-polling in 697 booths spread across five districts, on July 10.

Repolling will be held in the districts of Purulia, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, Nadia and South 24 Parganas on Monday, the state poll panel informed.

Earlier, West Bengal BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay wrote to the State Election Commission to declare the July 8 polling as void and hold fresh panchayat polls.

"You will recollect yesterday the BJP WB delegation called on you and asked you to review CCTV/video footage to establish booths which have to be re-polled due to booth, looting, polling officers seen participating/helping in rigging/where BJP candidates agents were forced to leave or removed from polling stations," the letter read.

The three-tier panchayat elections in 20 of 30 districts were marked by widespread violence, looting of ballots papers and rigging.

There were reports of booth capturing, damaging of ballot boxes and assault of presiding officers from several districts such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Nadia.

The polling for the panchayat elections began at 7 am on July 8 amid tight security in the state. An estimated 5.67 crore voters decided the fates of 2.06 lakh candidates, vying for 73,887 seats in rural areas of West Bengal.

The counting of votes will take place on July 11.