BJP delegation to visit areas affected by violence during Panchayat poll day in West Bengal
Jul 10, 2023
New Delhi [India], July 10 : 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 state and submit a report for the same.
The delegation includes former Union minister and party MP Ravishankar Prasad, (Convenor), Mumbai Police ex-Commissioner, Satyapal Singh, Rajdeep Roy, and Rekha Verma.
"BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda has nominated a four-member fact-finding committee to visit the violence-affected areas in West Bengal, where many people were killed in panchayat-related elections violence. The committee will submit its report to the Party
National President at the earliest," the party said in a statement.
The delegation will reach the state's capital Kolkata on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, repolling was conducted in 697 booths across five districts of West Bengal on Monday following the violence during the panchayat polls in the state on July 8.
The re-polling will be conducted in 697 booths across five districts: Purulia, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, Nadia and South 24 Parganas, said West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC).
The SEC, in an official release, said, "The West Bengal State Election Commision in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by sub-section-3 and sub-section-4 of Section-67 of the said Act, hereby fixes 10th day of July 2023, as the date of taking the fresh polls at 7:00 hours to be continued upto 17:00 hours uninterruptedly till completion and direct the District Panchayat Election Officer to fix the polling station at which polls will be taken".
Earlier on Sunday, alleging ballot rigging in the West Bengal panchayat polls which is marred by violence, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Khagen Murmu called for re-polling in Bengal, claiming that presiding officers and election staff were engaged in proxy voting in favour of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay also wrote to the State Election Commission and demanded repolling.
A total of 10 people were killed and several injured in violence reported across the state during the Panchayat poll. The three-tier panchayat elections in 20 out 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.
It was informed that the State Election Commission has set up a total of 61,636 polling booths to conduct elections for 3317 Gram Panchayats, 341 Panchayat Samitis and 20 Zila Parishads in the state of West Bengal on Saturday.
To ensure the safe conduct of the polls, 59,000 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and other state police forces have been given the responsibility for the security of polling booths across the state which also includes 4,834 sensitive booths on which only CAPFs are deployed, it further informed.
