India's Trinamool Sweeps Violence-Hit West Bengal

West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress in India has swept the three-tier panchayat elections in every district of the state, except Darjeeling and Kalimpong, according to reports from Indian media outlets.

The results of the rural local government election were out on Tuesday. Around 40 people have died due to poll-related violence since Saturday, private broadcaster NDTV reports.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, known as the main opposition party in West Bengal, was in the second position, with the Left-Congress alliance behind it in third.

The Indian Secular Front (ISF), which is emerging as a force in Muslim pockets in Bengal, performed well in its stronghold of Bhangar, the Indian Express reports. The ISF’s alliance with the CPI(M) and an anti-land acquisition committee gave a neck-and-neck fight to the TMC in some blocks of Bhangar, which saw some of the worst violence in the polls.

The TMC won 2,552 out of 3,317 gram panchayats, 232 panchayat samitis, and 12 out of 20 zilla parishads. The BJP was a distant second, winning only 212 gram panchayats, 7 panchayat samitis, but no zilla parishads.

Some results are yet to be published.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thanked her supporters in a Facebook post, saying that she and her party is grateful for the support.

Over 74,000 seats were up for grabs in the elections, including 63,229 gram panchayat seats, 9,730 panchayat samiti seats, and 928 zilla parishad seats, according to NDTV.

Repolling occurred on Monday due to rampant violence, and several booths were again marred by violence on the day.

Repolling was held in 696 booths amid allegations of electoral fraud, booth capturing, and multiple reports of electoral irregularities and voter suppression during the polls, NDTV reported.

Explosives were detonated near a counting centre in Murshidabad on Tuesday morning while the police had to use batons to disperse a crowd in Howrah.

The BJP accused the Trinamool of making "desperate attempts to loot votes" by preventing opposition observers from entering counting centres.

"TMC goons are making desperate attempts to steal the elections by obstructing the counting agents and candidates of the BJP and other opposition political parties from entering counting centres. They are being restricted from going towards the venue, and bombs are being hurled to intimidate counting agents," Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari told news agency PTI.

The Trinamool has claimed that 60 percent of the people killed in poll violence were either their workers or supporters, NDTV reported, citing a source.

"Even a malicious campaign with baseless propaganda to malign the AITC State Govt in WB couldn't sway the voters!" said Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee in response to the allegations of poll manipulation.