Following the suspension of voting on July 8 due to violence and the theft of ballot papers and ballot boxes, revoting began on Monday morning in 696 polling places for the West Bengal panchayat elections.In West Bengals Murshidabad, which has become the scene of the worst violence, 175 polling places are being reopened for voting, followed by 110 polling places in the neighbouring Malda district.Re-election is also taking place in 18 of the states 22 districts, including Cooch Behar, Nadia, and Purba Medinipur.#WATCH | West Bengal panchayat election re-poll | Voters queue up outside the polling booth at Tikiapara Primary High School in Murshidabad to cast their votes. A voter, Anjana Majumdar says, The first day there were no central forces. There were just three Police personnel.… pic.twitter.com/aPupguHwj3— ANI (@ANI) July 10, 2023According to the official release of the West Bengal State Election Commission, said, “The West Bengal State Election Commission in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by sub-section-3 and sub-section-4 of Section-67 of the said Act, hereby fixes 10th day of July 2023, as the date of taking the fresh polls at 7:00 hours to be continued upto 17:00 hours uninterruptedly till completion and direct the District Panchayat Election Officer to fix the polling station at which polls will be taken”.The West Bengal State Election Commission has deployed four security personnel each, at the polling booths where the violence occurred on July 8.Notably, there was widespread violence during the West Bengal panchayat elections on July 8 and according to the reports, 18 people died. On July 8, elections were held in around 61,000 polling places, despite claims from political parties that fraud and violence had rendered the entire process into a farce.
