The panchayat poll in West Bengal will be held in a single phase on July 8, State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday. The election will be held for three-tier panchayats across 20 districts and two-tier panchayats in hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
The election will be held across 3,317 gram panchayats in West Bengal across 63,329 gram panchayat seats; 9,730 panchayat samiti seats; and 928 zilla parishad seats. The total number of electors for the panchayat poll in the State stands at about 5.67 crore.
The State Election Commissioner said that he would take a decision on the deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in consultation with the State government. The demand for deployment of the CAPF has been raised by the political parties in the Opposition, considering the history of violence during the panchayat poll.
