A total of 2,36,464 nominations have been filed for nearly 74,000 seats in the three-tier panchayat election scheduled in West Bengal on July 8, a senior official of the State Election Commission (SEC) said.

The ruling Trinamul Congress has filed 85,817 nominations while the BJP is in the second position with 56,321 candidates, according to a report prepared on Friday afternoon.

CPI(M) nominees filed nominations in 48,646 seats followed by the Congress (17,750), Independent (16,293), Forward Bloc (1,595) and others (10,042), the official said.

Thursday was the last day for filing nominations.

Out of the total nominations, 4,932 were filed for Zilla Parishads, and 35,445 for Panchayat Samitis. A total of 1,96,087 nominations were filed for the Gram Panchayats, it stated.

Approximately 5.67 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to choose their representatives in zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.

The Calcutta High Court has ordered deployment of central forces for the rural poll.

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