The Trinamul Congress has won 41seats uncontested out of the 42 seats of Birbhum Zilla Parishad.

On Monday was the last day for filing nomination papers and only one BJP candidate was able to file nomination in a lone seat of ZP. The Trinamul Congress also won uncontested 14 out of 19 Panchayat samiti seats.

Talking to The Statesman, Mr Anubrata Mondal, district Trinamul Congress president, claimed: “It is true that for the first time it has created a history by winning 41 seats uncontested in the zilla parishad seats ever in any three tier gram panchayat polls in West Bengal.

“People of the district have been with development, with Ma, Mati Manusher Sarkar and do not think of an alternative political party right now. They are fully satisfied.The results are evident on Monday,” Mr Mondal claimed.

“We will win all the 42 zilla parishad seats, 19 panchayat samity seats and 167 gram panchayat seats and Ketugram and Ausgram which are controlled by me and have claimed it long ago. There are no people with the Opposition parties as there has been no development in the past 34 years,” he added.

BJP leader Sayantan Basu said that the gram panchayat polls have become a farce in the state. All the SDO, BDO offices have been under the grip of TMC armed cadres and Opposition party candidates have been prevented to file nomination papers.

“Even if the polls of the lone seat is held our candidate will lose and they will now allow to organise free and fair polls,”he alleged.

Another BJP leader Rahul Sinha has alleged that the image of Bengal has been tarnished on Monday after the Birbhum mockery and the darkest day in democracy of the state.

Syed Mohammed Jimmy, district Congress president and CPI-M leader Dr Ram Chandra Dome parroted him. Not a single Congress and Left Front candidate have been able to file nomination papers till 3 PM on Monday.

The SP of Birbhum has removed the officer-in- charge of Lokpur Police Station, SI Nilotpol Mishra alleging him of behaving like a BJP cadre and closed to police lines.He has been replaced by SITarun Chattaoraj.

On 7 April, tribals clashed at Mohammadbazar and the District Trinamul Congress president, Anubrata Mondal, alleged that the Lokpur OC has failed to stop the criminals coming from Jharkhand. On his complaint, Birbhum SP, Neelkanth Sudhir Kumar has replaced the OC on Monday.

So far 28 BJP supporters have been arrested in Mohammadbazar incident including six candidates. Mondal claimed that he is eyeying the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and the TMC will win the Birbhum and Bolpur LSseats by a margin of over two to three lakhs.

The TMC has bagged 26 seats of the Bankura Zilla Parishad uncontested out of 46 seats. The BJP and the Left Front has managed to file nominations in nine and seven ZP seats.

Vivekananda Patra, district president, BJP said: “This is not democracy. They unleashed reign of terror and prevented our men to the nomination centres.” CPI-M’s district secretary, Ajit Pati said: “It was one-sided game and they got absolute support by the district police and administration and definitely this was not a cake walk rather it was a shame on them.”

The Zilla Parishad was governed by the AITC since 2013 three-tier Panchayat polls. Arup Chakraborty was the Sabhadhipati of the ZP’s outgoing board and this time he filed nomination from Indas seat due to reservation.

He said: “Of course it’s a shame on them as they failed to procure adequate candidates. It’s really unfortunate and we hope they would be able to get prepared for the 2023 polls.”

The district administrative corridor wore a deserted look on Monday as adequate security measures were taken by the police and administration to prevent any chaotic scene. The entire zone was covered under CCTV surveillance.

In Burdwan (East), Trinamul Congress won 13 seats uncontested out of 58 zilla Parishad seats. Trinamul Congress also won 12 Panchayat Samiti seats uncontested out of 23 Panchayat Samiti seats. In Katwea sub-division, out of 635 gram panchayat seats, Trinamul Congress bagged 622 seats uncontested.

In view of complaints of inability to file nominations by Opposition parties, SEC has extended the last date for filing nomination till 3 pm on 10 April. As per the schedule, the nomination was supposed to end on Monday.