The Trinamool Congress was leading in 2,228 out of the 2,702 of the gram panchayats in West Bengal for which trends were available till 9 pm on Tuesday, according to ABP Ananda. The state has a total of 3,317 gram panchayats. The Bharatiya Janata Party was leading in 203 gram panchayats. The Left Front was ahead in 53 of them, while the Congress’ tally was 63.

The ruling party was also leading in 114 of the 126 panchayat samitis for which trends were available. A total of 341 panchayat samitis went to polls. None of the 20 zilla parishads have been declared yet.

The counting of votes for 73,887 seats in the three-tier panchayat system of West Bengal began on Tuesday morning.

The polling for the rural elections in the state took place on July 8. However, repolling was held at 696 booths on Monday after widespread incidents of violence left at least 20 persons dead and reports of tampering with ballot boxes also surfaced.

Violence was reported from different parts of the state even on Tuesday.

The Trinamool Congress has alleged that members of the attacked the car of its candidate from Gobindapur Gram Panchayat, Murshidabad, Mamoni Bibi while she was on her way to the counting hall. Her husband was also beaten up by a mob.

Meanwhile, security forces baton-charged people who gathered outside a counting centre in Barasat. A crude bomb had blasted outside a counting centre in Diamond Harbour, reported ANI.

The BJP on Tuesday said that the violence in West Bengal was unprecedented and claimed that 45 persons had died in the state. The party also blamed the Trinamool Congress for failing to deploy the central security forces properly.

“For ensuring a peaceful and proper election process, the central forces were sent to West Bengal, but these forces were not deployed properly by the State Government,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in a press conference. “The information as regards the number of sensitive booths was kept hidden. Also, no data of any kind about the sensitive booths was provided.”