According to media sources, conflicts during the municipal elections in West Bengal, a state infamous for political violence during election campaigns, resulted in at least 11 deaths and numerous other injuries. With more than 200,000 candidates vying for the position of local leaders across the 104 million-person state, voters will cast their ballots on Saturday. At least 11 election-related deaths, according to reports in Indian media citing the Press Trust of India news agency, were reported in the state controlled by the Trinamool Congress, an opposition party, and where the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is actively trying to gain ground as it looks to branch out beyond the Hindi-speaking north. According to the agency, 11 people were slain, including six Trinamool Congress members and one worker from each of the BJP, Communist organization of India (Marxist), Congress, and a local Muslim organization. The name of the 11th individual was unknown. The deaths could not be independently verified by Al Jazeera.

11 people killed as rural West Bengal votes in panchayat electionshttps://t.co/AOUZhJXa2N pic.twitter.com/QbycHTpGhV

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 8, 2023

Videos on social media showed political workers roaming the streets with batons despite a heavy security presence as paramilitary troops stood guard to keep order. Ballot boxes were snatched and set alight outside polling stations in many places, according to reports, as rival parties blamed each other for the chaos. More than 200 crude bombs – a staple of West Bengal elections that are sold cheaply on the black market to maim or intimidate voters – had also been seized during the polls, police said. The West Bengal state was ruled by a communist party for more than three decades until Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee defeated the communists in 2011. Banerjee, also a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has accused his Hindu nationalist BJP of attempting to import divisive sectarian politics into the state, which has a large Muslim minority. Modi has in turn accused her administration of endemic corruption. But the roots of political violence in the state stretch back decades, with police recording thousands of murders around election time since the 1960s. During state polls in 2021, Trinamool won emphatically with a two-thirds majority. However, Modi’s BJP made substantial gains, making it the main opposition party as its tally in the state legislature went to nearly 80 seats from just three seats won in 2016. Several activists from both parties were shot or hacked to death, their bodies sometimes hung from trees as an intimidation tactic. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES