West Bengal panchayat polls: Campaigning ends for rural elections spread across 20 districts; voting to take place tomorrow

Kolkata: Campaigning for the 14 May panchayat polls in West Bengal came to an end on Saturday. The rural elections will be held in 621 zilla parishads and 6,157 panchayat samitis, besides in 31,827 gram panchayats, spread across 20 districts on 14 May, the State Election Commission said. [caption id=“attachment_969907” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. PTI[/caption] The polling will begin at 7 am and end at 5 pm and counting will take place on 17 May, the commission said. The run up to the polls which witnessed a series of court cases, also experienced of several clashes across districts between supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP, Congress and the Left. Amid intense violence, the Opposition parties accused the State Election Commission (SEC) of not providing enabling environment for their candidates to file nominations. They also accused the ruling Trinamool for unleashing a reign of terror during the nomination process for the polls. On the other hand, Trinamool termed these allegations baseless and appealed voters to vote for development. The BJP, which has been trying to emerge as the main challenger to the Trinamool, promised development in rural areas if it is come to power while the Left Front and the Congress had appealed to the voters to defeat the Trinamool and BJP in Bengal.