Bengal holds first phase of panchayat polls amid tight security

Eleven persons have beeninjured in a clash between workers of the Congress and the ruling Trinamool inWest Midnapore district in West Bengal as voting for the first of the controversialfive-phased panchayat polls in the state got underway today. Senior CPM leader SuryaKanta Mishra was also heckled by Trinamool supporters in the district after hecast this vote this morning.

The elections, which havegenerated much political heat, are being held after the Supreme Court last weekrefused to reschedule its dates which the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengalgovernment said, were clashing with the holy month of Ramzan. The top court hadalso strongly criticised the state government for dilly-dallying on the issueof holding polls.

Nearly 75 lakh votersacross three districts will stamp the ballot paper the old-fashioned way tochoose representatives to over 10,200 seats. The districts that will witnesspolling today include West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura, which togethercomprise Junglemahal, an erstwhile Maoist stronghold. Voting will be done forthe three-tier rural bodies - gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zillaparishad. Security is tight today across the three districts with over 48,000central and state forces having been deployed to ensure smooth voting in 10,038polling stations.

The Left had, during the last elections, won majority of the seats from thisregion. This time, though, Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has already wonover 1,600 seats without a contest.

The party has, in all, already grabbed a majority of the 6,274 seats that havebeen won uncontested from the total 58,865 seats that will witness votingacross the five phases on July 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25. A total of 1.7 lakhcandidates are in the fray in over 17 districts in these controversialelections.

The elections have been the cause of a bitter legal confrontation between theBengal government and the State Election Commission, both of who have clashedover several issues - including the number of phases and security - in theconducting of the polls.