"They Will Curse The Day...": Bengal Governor's Big Warning On Local Polls

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Tuesday vowed to crack down on the growing violence in the state, which has marred the ongoing panchayat elections.

"There will be a relentless fight against growing violence in Bengal," Mr Bose said as quoted by news agency ANI. "Those who commit violence in the field will be made to curse the day they are born. All authorities will come down with a heavy hand on the goons and lawbreakers."

As the counting of votes for the panchayat elections began earlier today, security was stepped up at counting centres across the state. This comes amid allegations of electoral fraud, booth capturing, and multiple reports of electoral irregularities and voter suppression during the polling.

The polls, billed as a test of popularity for Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saw rampant violence on Saturday amid allegations of tampering with ballot boxes which led to the deaths of 36 people. 

Repolling was conducted in 696 booths across 19 districts of the state where voting for the panchayat elections was declared void due to the violence.

Governor Bose met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, shortly after repolling was conducted.

"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 said shortly after meeting Mr Shah. 

Security forces from the central and state governments were deployed at all 61,636 polling booths to ensure a fair, safe, and impartial election for 3,317 Gram Panchayats, 341 Panchayat Samitis, and 20 Zila Parishads.

"Actually, false voting took place in 18,000 booths at the behest of the TMC. We are collecting more evidence. Our list was apparently overlooked by State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha, but we are not surprised. The list of booths suddenly announced by the SEC for repoll was submitted by the TMC," Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said on the repolling, as quoted by news agency PTI.

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh has accused opposition parties of perpetrating the violence that occurred on election day. 

"It is TMC that has suffered the most due to this opposition-sponsored violence. Central forces did not arrive despite requisition by the SEC. Today's poll has been peaceful and it proves that SEC has taken steps to control the situation," Mr Ghosh said.

The counting of the votes began at 8 am today. 

Over 5.6 crore people living in rural Bengal were eligible to cast their votes in the elections that saw over 206,000 candidates battling for 73,887 seats.