Panchayat polls: About 12% seats go ‘uncontested’

MP | 24 June 2023 | Kolkata: The final list of uncontested seats released by the State Election Commission (SEC) has revealed that 12 per cent of the total seats in the three-tier Panchayat elections in Bengal scheduled to be held on July 8 have gone uncontested. 

However, this is much lower in comparison to the last Panchayat polls held in 2018, when 34 per cent of the seats were won uncontested. South 24-Parganas has the highest number of uncontested seats with 1767 in Gram Panchayat (GP), 233 in Panchayat Samiti (PS) and 8 in Zilla Parishad (ZP). 

Interestingly, South 24-Parganas alone accounts for half of the total uncontested seats in the ZPs across the state. 

There are 16 uncontested seats in Zilla Parishad. Birbhum figures second in the list with 1,019 uncontested seats followed by North 24-Parganas which has 974 uncontested seats. 

The total number of seats in Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad that have been won uncontested in Birbhum are 893, 128 and 1 respectively. 

As many as 9,009 out of 73,887 seats in the three-tier Panchayat elections have gone uncontested. 

The total number of seats in GP that have gone uncontested is 8,002; in PS the number is 991 while in ZP the number is 16. In North 24-Parganas and South Dinajpur, 3 ZP seats each have gone uncontested. 

The total number of seats in GP is 63,229, in PS it is 9,730 while in ZP this is 928. 

The figures show that over 12 per cent of the total seats in GP, 10 per cent of total seats in PS and 1.7 per cent seats in ZP have gone uncontested. 

In Murshidabad which will see a contest in the highest number of seats that amounts to 6,419 only 178 seats have been won uncontested. In West Burdwan 858 out of 4,010 seats in GP and 93 out of 640 seats in PS have been won uncontested. 

According to data published by the SEC, 2,05,720 candidates are contesting in the Panchayat Polls out of which 71,287 are TMC candidates. 

As many as 46,738 candidates are from BJP, 43,029 are from CPI(M) while 14,914 are from Congress. 

The total number of Independent candidates in the fray is 19,953 which includes 509 in ZP. In 928 seats in the ZP, BJP has been able to field candidates in 903 seats while CPI(M) and Congress have managed to field 748 and 645 candidates respectively. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/panchayat-polls-about-12-seats-go-uncontested-523273