Panchayat Election 2023: West Bengal is preparing for Panchayat elections scheduled for next month. Last week, the West Bengal State Election Commission released the Panchayat election schedule for 2023.
The deadline for nomination submissions was Thursday, June 15. On July 8, three-tier panchayat elections will be conducted in 20 districts and two-tier elections will be held in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts.
On July 8, 2023, West Bengal Panchayat elections will be conducted throughout the state. The vote tally will be conducted on July 11. The state election commission has announced that the polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Schedule for West Bengal Panchayat Election 2023
All three levels of Panchayati Raj institutions are up for election: Gramme Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, and Zilla Parishads. This year, approximately 74,000 seats will be up for election in the Panchayat elections.
There are currently 825 Zila Parishads constituencies within more than 20 Zila Parishads and 1 Mahakuma Parishad, 9240 Panchayat Samiti constituencies within 341 Panchayat Samitis, and 48751 Gramme Panchayat constituencies within 3354 Gramme Panchayats.
Panchayat Election 2023: Nominations
For the Panchayat elections, the West Bengal State Election Commission has received a total of 2,36,464 nominations. The ruling Trinamool Congress has submitted the most candidates, 85,817, while the BJP has submitted 56,321. Congress has fielded candidates for 17,750 of the 48,646 seats contested by the CPI(M).
In 2018, the Trinamool Congress won 95% of all Zila Parishad seats and 90% of all Panchayat Samiti seats. The dominant party also won 73% of the seats in the Gramme Panchayats.
West Bengal’s Panchayat elections in 2023 are crucial given that Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for the following year.
When were the most recent panchayat elections?
The last panchayat elections were conducted in 2018, and they were marred by widespread violence, with opposition parties alleging that their candidates were prevented from submitting nomination papers and intimidated. The TMC won approximately 90% of seats, of which 34% were unopposed.
