Bengal Panchayat Election Violence: BJP Fact-finding Team Visits Cooch Behar

GG News Bureau

Cooch Behar, 14th July. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fact-finding team on election violence in West Bengal reached Cooch Behar, North Bengal, on Friday.

The BJP has formed a five-member fact-finding committee, led by party MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, that would visit Dinhata in Coochbehar and other regions hit by violence in the state.

BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday with his party’s fact-finding team.

“We will visit the violence-affected areas and meet the victims and after that, we will submit our report to party president JP Nadda,” Prasad said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated on Wednesday that the fact-finding team led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad is the BJP’s provocation committee.

She asked, “Where were these teams and committees when Manipur was burning and thousands of people were murdered in Uttar Pradesh in the name of the encounter?”

She stated that none of the teams had visited these locations, but that 154 teams had visited Bengal in the previous two years.

Earlier on Tuesday, the BJP formed a five-member fact-finding committee in the aftermath of widespread violence during the state’s Panchayat elections.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Why should more than 40 people lose their lives in the gram panchayat election? Why the so-called colleagues who are trying to forge an alliance against Narendra Modi are maintaining a conspicuous silence? We will visit and submit our report to the President. I hope the Mamata government will allow us to visit the affected areas?”

West Bengal panchayat elections were conducted on July 8. However, the vote day turned violent by extensive violence, ballot paper looting, and rigging.

Several districts, including Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, and Nadia, reported booth capture, ballot box damage, and assaults on presiding officers. There have also been reports of ballot boxes being set on fire and fights between political parties in several regions.

West Bengal has 3,341 gram panchayats and 58,594 village panchayat election centers. There are 63,239 Gram Panchayat seats, 9730 Panchayat Samiti seats, and 928 Zila Parishad seats.