Bengal Governor's "Good Days" Message After Meeting Amit Shah In Delhi

Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose met Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday, an hour after repolling in more than 700 booths in Bengal panchayat polls over reports of violence and tampering with ballot boxes.

The meeting, which lasted for nearly 30 minutes, is significant as it was scheduled just two days after the violence in Panchayat polls which has claimed over a dozen lives in the state.

The repolling was held across five districts: Purulia, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, Nadia and South 24 Parganas, said West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC).

"The only message I'd like to give today is if winter comes can spring be far behind. Good will happen in the days to come," the Governor told reporters after meeting Mr Shah for over half hour, adding that the darkest hour is just before the dawn, alluding to the panchayat poll violence in which 15 people were killed.

The Governor is said to have briefed the Home Minister about the prevailing situation and his assessment of the violence-hit polls.

Polling was held on Saturday in over 61,000 booths for the three-tier panchayat elections. In several places, ballot boxes were looted, set on fire and thrown in ponds, leading to violence.

A total 5.67 crore people living in the state's rural areas were eligible to decide the fate of 2.06 lakh candidates in 73,887 seats of the panchayat system.

Counting of votes will start at 8 am on Juy 11. All counting centres will have a deployment of Central forces and CCTV cameras installed.

To conduct a fair, safe and impartial election for 3317 Gram Panchayats, 341 Panchayat Samitis and 20 Zila Parishads in West Bengal on Saturday, security forces from the Centre, as well as the state, were deployed on all 61,636 polling booths.