West Bengal Panchayat Election 2018 Results: TMC wins 9,270 Gram Panchayat seats; full updates

The results of the West Bengal panchayat elections, which were held on 14 May, will be announced today. Stay tuned for latest updates.

 

Elections in India : The ruling Trinamool Congress looks set for a resounding victory in rural Bengal after nearly eight hours of counting of votes in the three-tier state Panchayat elections, with control over 80 per cent of the Gram Panchayat seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged a distant second in almost all the districts.

According to the latest trend, Trinamool won in 20 out of 825 Zilla Parishad seats and was comfortably leading in another 22, while the opposition parties drew a blank. The state ruling party also came out victorious in at least 160 out of 6,125 Panchayat Samiti seats and were leading in another 173 constituencies, the latest poll result data released by the State Election Commission (SEC) said.

The BJP and the left managed to bag one Panchayat Samiti seats each. The BJP managed to move ahead or win a section of Panchayat seats, especially in Murshidabad and Jhargram districts, while the Left and Congress were pushed to margins. The Trinamool Congress leadership, however, refused to celebrate as a lot of counting still remained.

Also Read → Karnataka Election Results 2018

“It is a massive victory for Trinamool. The opposition thought giving outside support to Independent candidates would reap benefits for them. It has been proved wrong as all of them have been wiped clean. People voted for Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee,” West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick said.

Sporadic incidents of violence over the election results were reported from certain districts like Nadia where a group of miscreants allegedly ran away with ballot boxes. The counting of votes was halted for almost three hours in Nadia’s Majhdia after allegations of tampering with the ballot papers were received.

In Birbhum, BJP and Trinamool Congress activists clashed with each other outside a counting station. The police had to resort to baton charge to disperse the mob. In West Bengal’s Bhangar, which has been on the boil over the construction of a power grid sub-station by the state government over the last one year, the Independent candidates backed by Jomi-Jibika-Bastutantra O Poribesh Rokkha Committee (committee for protecting life, livelihood, ecology and environment) won five out of eight Gram Panchayat seats, wherever voting took place.

According to the state administration, 12 people lost their lives on the polling day among which death of six people were confirmed to be due to poll violence. However, opposition political parties and a section of the media claimed the death toll on the polling day had gone up to 21, while five more people died the next day.

Read More → West Bengal Panchayat Election Results

Karnataka Election Results 2018: Hung house in Karnataka; Congress and BJP spar over poaching rumors; Updates

After results to the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 threw up a hung Assembly on Tuesday, both BJP and Congress-JD(S) combine are targetting each other with allegations of poaching of legislators.

Karnataka Election Results 2018 : A day after the Karnataka Assembly election results threw up a fractured mandate, some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were reported to be claiming that they were in touch with several of elected members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Congress and the JD(S), and that the BJP would definitely form the next government in the state.

The BJP, apparently, is in talks with at least seven of the 10 Lingayat legislators of the Congress who are unhappy with the party for dividing the Lingayat community votes and are unwilling to accept Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga, as their chief minister. Sources in the BJP told Business Standard that the party was also in touch with about half a dozen JD(S) MLAs who might be willing to abstain from voting at the time of the floor test.

Congress leader D K Shivakumar, while talking to news agency ANI, said that the party had a plan and that they were facing a lot of pressure with the BJP trying to poach Congress MLAs.

Also Read : BJP Falls Short Of Majority; Cong-JD(S) Stitch Alliance

In the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, with 104 seats, but it fell short of the halfway mark of 112 in the 224-seat state Assembly by 9 seats. Congress ended up as the second-biggest with 78 seats, and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) stood third with 38 seats. The Congress and the JD(S) decided to come together to form a coalition government.

At present, the ball is in the court of Governor Vajubhai Vala, who will decide which side would be invited to form the next government. According to an NDTV report, both sides would meet the governor again on Wednesday to make their case stronger.

Karnataka Assembly election 2018 saw a record 72.36 per cent of the 50.7 million (5.07 crore) voters exercising their right to franchise. Of them, 27,908 electors in defence services voted through postal ballots. The Election Commission had deployed 16,662 personnel for counting of votes amid tight security.

Four of the seven polling agencies had predicted in their exit polls that the BJP would emerge as the single-largest party. While most exit polls predicted a hung Assembly with the BJP ahead, two had said the BJP would either come very close to or cross the halfway mark of 112 seats. The India Today-Axis exit poll had said the Congress might bag a majority. All exit polls had given the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) nearly two dozen seats or more. The JD(S), however, beat that projection by bagging 37 seats.

READ MORE ON → Karnataka Results 2018

Karnataka Election Results 2018: Karnataka fate hangs in balance; BJP or Congress, who will have the last laugh?

While the BJP emerged single-largest, it was the JD(S) which turned kingmaker helping the Congress keep power in a crucial southern state.

Karnataka Election Results 2018 : Karnataka is headed for a spell of political instability as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged the single-largest party with 104 seats after the just-concluded Assembly elections, but could not reach the halfway mark of 112. The Congress, with 78 seats, acted with swiftness and agility, contacted the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), with 38 seats, offered the smaller party chief ministership and stitched up an agreement to forestall an understanding between the JD(S) and the BJP.

At the time of filing this report, Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala had remained non-committal on the claims of the parties, asking them to wait until the official tally is declared. Constitutional experts said the Governor was not obligated to call the single-largest party for a first stab at forming a government though the majority must be tested on the floor of the House.

As was widely expected, while the BJP emerged single-largest, it was the JD(S) which turned kingmaker, helping the Congress keep power in a crucial southern state. The BJP’s jubilant mood, when the initial results first poured in, turned to gloom as it became clear that the halfway mark was going to elude it. A scheduled press conference by party President Amit Shah was called off, a lunch party organised at the BJP headquarters was cancelled and drum players, who had congregated at the headquarters in Delhi, were asked to go home in a matter of hours. Bouquets of flower lay piled up forlornly at the headquarters, testifying to the disappointment of workers.

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Also Read : BJP vs Congress-JD(S): Karnataka’s fate now in Governor’s hands; highlights

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It was clear from initial reactions in Bengaluru and Delhi that the BJP was not interested in tying up with the JD(S) to form a government at any cost. The Congress, which had indicated on Monday that it was ready to be flexible about the top job (with former chief minister (CM) Siddaramaiah announcing that he was ready to accept a Dalit CM) got top leader Sonia Gandhi to call Gowda and persuade his son Kumaraswamy to become CM with the Congress’ backing to keep the BJP out. Although the JD(S) has roughly half the number of seats the Congress has, it grabbed the offer of chief ministership eagerly.

The BJP claimed it had the mandate to form the government. But the Congress and the JD(S), which together have a few seats more than the saffron party, retorted that they had got the mandate to prevent the BJP from forming a government. In a sense, the Congress did a BJP on the BJP. In Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur elections in 2017, the BJP tied up with smaller parties and Independents under the nose of the Congress, though the party was single-largest, and managed to form a government, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. “The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur that a single-largest party does not automatically qualify to form the government,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in defence of the Congress-JD(S) claim to form a government.

 Read More on → Karnataka Results 2018

UP Bypoll Results 2018 LIVE: BJP leads in Gorakhpur, SP in Phulpur; Adityanath sure of win

Lok Sabha by-elections in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Bihar’s Araria, being viewed as yet another test for BJP ahead of 2019 general elections.

Breaking News : The counting of votes for the Lok Sabha by-election 2018 for the two constituencies of Uttar Pradesh — Gorakhpur and Phulpur and Bihar’s Araria will begin on Wednesday amid tight security arrangements. The results are expected to be declared by Thursday afternoon, according to an Election Commission official.

Uttar Pradesh by-elections 2018

The voter turnout was 47.45 per cent in Gorakhpur and 37.39 per cent in Phulpur in Sunday’s polling. Ten candidates were in the fray from Gorakhpur, while 22 candidates contested from Phulpur. According to the Election Commission, there are 1.96 million (19.61 lakh) voters in Phulpur parliamentary constituency, while the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat has a 1.95 million (19.49 lakh) electorate.

Uttar Pradesh by-polls 2018 were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, respectively, following their election to the state legislative council.

Bihar by-elections 2018

Fifty-seven per cent polling was registered in Araria, Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Nayak said. In the Bhabua and Jehanabad Assembly constituencies in Bihar, where by-polls were also held, the voter turnout was 54.03 per cent and 50.06 per cent respectively, he said.

Bihar by-polls 2018 for the Araria seat was necessitated by the death of RJD MP Mohd Taslimuddin.

→ Bihar Bypoll Results 2018 , UP Bypoll Results 2018 ←

Rahul shows up as ‘non-Hindu’ in Somnath visitors’ list; BJP rakes up issue

The BJP tried to make an issue of this faux pas, pouncing on this opportunity to corner the Gandhi scion.

Rahul Gandhi at Somnath Temple : In a major goof-up, the media coordinator of Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday wrote “non-Hindu” against the name of the Congress Vice President in the register of the famed Somnath temple, leading the BJP to pounce on it as evidence that Gandhi is “not a Hindu”.

Rahul Gandhi’s media coordinator Manoj Tyagi later clarified that he had entered the Congress leader’s name in the register as a means to take along his entire delegation inside that included security personnel and media persons.

The Congress Vice President, who arrived on Wednesday on a two-day visit to the poll-bound state of Gujarat, was to pay a visit to the temple for prayers before beginning his election campaign in Saurashtra region.

Ahead of the visit, Manoj Tyagi made an entry in the register for Ahmed Patel, a non-Hindu, who was to accompany the Congress Vice President inside the temple and also wrote the name of Rahul Gandhi in the register.

The BJP tried to make an issue of this faux pas, pouncing on this opportunity to corner the Gandhi scion.

The saffron party is worried about the soft Hindutva line that Rahul Gandhi has been following in his several visits to the state, which are being seen as a successful tactic in the election-bound state.

Click to Read → Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017