In an election, where most voters in New Town were kept away from the polling booths by swarming unfamiliar faces stationed at guard rails that had been put up to block all approaches to the polling booths in Action Area 1 on July 8, the ruling party candidates won decisively in all eight panchayat samiti seats that went to polls in the smart city as part of Jyangra Hatiara 2 panchayat under the Rajarhat block. (see table for results of individual seats)
At the counting at Rajarhat Siksha Niketan on Tuesday, Trinamul Congress candidates surged ahead with just two Opposition contestants, the CPM nominees in Seat 24 and 29, registering triple digit votes, that too which barely got into three figures. Votes for the rest of the candidates dwindled in double digits.
Official figures collected by The Telegraph Salt Lake reveal how, despite voters reaching the booths in a trickle, polling percentages averaging around 80 per cent were registered in all booths, except the Action Area IID community market which saw just 191 votes being polled out of the 716 votes listed there. Even then, the overall polling percentage for New Town came to a significantly high 75.4 per cent (see polling chart).
