Bengal panchayat nomination process peaceful; oppn filed record nominations: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday asserted that the panchayat poll nomination process in the state is peaceful, while slamming opposition parties for trying to make an issue out of one or two stray incidents.Banerjees comments come shortly after Governor C V Ananda Bose visited Bhangore, where supporters of two parties clashed a day before leaving three persons dead, and said political violence in the state must end.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday asserted that the panchayat poll nomination process in the state is peaceful, while slamming opposition parties for trying to make an issue out of ''one or two stray'' incidents.

Banerjee's comments come shortly after Governor C V Ananda Bose visited Bhangore, where supporters of two parties clashed a day before leaving three persons dead, and said political violence in the state must end. The governor also said he already discussed the situation with her.

''There is no other state other than Bengal where the panchayat poll nomination process is so peaceful. The opposition parties - CPI (M), Congress, BJP and the ISF - are trying to blame us over one or two incidents during the nomination exercise,'' the chief minister said while accusing the opposition of trying to malign the state.

She was addressing the concluding session of the party's two-month-long mass outreach programme 'Trinamool eh Nabojowar' (new wave in Trinamool).

Banerjee rejected claims that the opposition candidates were not allowed to file nominations, stating that over 1.5 lakh nomination papers have been filed by them for the July 8 polls.

''Have you ever heard that 2.31 lakh nominations for rural polls have been filed in any other state? Over 1.5 lakh nominations have been filed by opposition parties alone, yet you are claiming that they weren't able to file nominations. Isn't this paradoxical?'' the TMC supremo said.

Widespread violence over the filing of nominations so far has left five people dead and several injured in various parts of the state.

''Over the past few days, I have noticed how politics is being played against me and my Trinamool family. This Baam (Left)-Raam (BJP)-Shyam (Congress) have joined hands and are hell-bent on defeating us,'' she said.

She criticised opposition parties for seeking central forces to conduct the rural polls, referring to the violence and bloodshed that occurred during village council elections under the CPI (M) regime.

"During the 2021 Bengal (assembly) elections, these central forces shot dead innocent people in Sitalkuchi,'' she said, questioning how many companies of central forces are sent to other states.

''Why are central forces not being sent to Manipur, where so many people have died?" Banerjee asked, though army and paramilitary forces were deployed in the ethnic violence affected northeastern state.

The TMC supremo also mentioned that the 2013 West Bengal panchayat polls, held under the supervision of central forces, too witnessed violence and 49 people died.

Hitting out at the Congress, Banerjee said the grand old party should not expect the TMC to support them in the state if they hobnob with the BJP and CPI (M) in West Bengal. ''The Congress wants us to support them in Parliament in the fight against the BJP. We will support them as we too want to fight the BJP. But they should not expect us to support them in Bengal if they continue to have an understanding with the CPI (M) and the BJP to fight against us here,'' she said.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, also the nephew of the party supremo, said the party is against violence and highlighted the high number of nominations received in Zilla Parishads.

He warned TMC activists against running as independents if denied tickets and stated that those who work against the party's interest would not be readmitted.

In the 2018 rural polls, the TMC won 90 per cent of the Panchayat seats in the state and all 22 Zilla Parishads. These elections were marred by widespread violence and malpractices, with the opposition alleging they were prevented from filing nominations in many seats across the state.