Local polls resume in West Bengal after violence leaves 10 dead

VOTING in local polls in India's West Bengal state resumed on Monday (10) at hundreds of election centres after being disrupted by violence that left 10 people dead, officials said.

The state election commission reported seven people were killed last Saturday (8) in election-related violence and another three died "in post-poll violence" last Sunday (9), election commissioner Rajiva Sinha told reporters on Monday.

Opposition parties said at least 16 people died.

The election commission reran polls at 697 centres following complaints of violence and electoral malpractice.

Sporadic violence has gripped the state in east India since June 8 when the elections were announced.

Media reports cited instances of political rivals shooting at each other over the weekend, hurling crude bombs at people gathered to vote and blocking access to voting booths.

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has in recent years worked hard to gain a toehold in West Bengal - ruled by a communist party for much of its history - as it seeks to expand its reach beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands.

The fierce contest is to elect municipal leaders, with more than 200,000 candidates in the running across the state of 104 million people.

West Bengal has been led by Mamata Banerjee since 2011, when her Trinamool party defeated the communist-led administration that had run the state for the prior three decades.

Banerjee, a critic of prime minister Narendra Modi, has accused his 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.

The TMC currently has a majority in the rural council, called panchayats, but faces a challenge from the BJP, which is seeking to make inroads after losing the state assembly elections there in 2021.

"Political opponents did not have anything to offer to counter our development initiatives. That's why they unleashed violence against our party workers," said Shantanu Sen, a spokesperson for the TMC.

Dilip Ghosh, a senior BJP leader, said the state government had failed to maintain security.

"The state administration has totally failed to contain violence and bloodshed," he said.