West Bengal Panchayat polls: Results stand for now, but Supreme Court allows parties to file election petition on unopposed seats

In what will be a minor respite for Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the petitions filed Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and others in the West Bengal panchayat polls, asking them to file an election petition within the next 30 days.

While accepting that the high number of seats which were won unopposed by the TMC workers during the elections was a matter of concern, the Supreme Court has made it clear that there would not be re-elections on those seats as of now.

The apex court has allowed for the results of the uncontested seats to be declared. Thirty days time is given for any election petition to be filed against them, otherwise the results will be final.

Prior to the announcement of this judgment, lawyer representing West Bengal government on this matter told Republic TV that there was no link between violence and uncontested seats. Vikas Singh said, "The minority party engineers violence blame in on the ruling party. It doesn't make sense the party which has brutal numbers will indulge in violence. It is raised by parties which doesn’t have anything in the election.

"Linking violence to uncontested seats is completely different, it has no link why will TMC indulge in any such kind of act. It is merely an act done by the parties who cant showcase in the election. CPI has less then 10% and has a very small share. They are just making mockery. How can one say TMC didn't allow? A party which is winning, why will it not want th other parties to contest?"

Earlier this year, the TMC dominated the panchayat polls, and won over 20,000 seats unopposed. It aggrieved the opposition, which claimed that the leaders of the ruling government had obstructed them from filing the nomination papers through violence and attacks.

Following that, the opposition went to Calcutta High Court seeking injustice. The court then ordered State Election Commission to accept nomination papers in electronic form. But the Election Commission in turn approached the Supreme Court, which set aside the High Court order.