The West Bengal BJP unit on Tuesday released the party's manifesto for the July 8 panchayat polls and promised corruption-free village councils and infrastructure push in rural Bengal.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar released the manifesto along with Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari and BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh.

Around 5.67 crore voters are likely to exercise their franchise in the polls to elect nearly 75,000 candidates in zilla parishads, panchayat samiti and gram panchayats.

"We want to form corruption-free panchayats across the state, where you don't need to pay bribes to avail welfare schemes or get work done by the local panchayats. Corruption and TMC have become synonymous in West Bengal. We want to create an atmosphere of local self-government in the true sense," Majumdar said.

The manifesto, christened "Sankalap Patra for Panchayat Election 2023", promised to create an atmosphere where the rural population can avail the benefits of the welfare schemes by the Centre without any bias or intimidation.

"The rural infrastructure has completely broken down in the state. In agriculture, health, education and road infrastructure, the TMC has only indulged in corruption in the last 12 years and neglected development. It is only the local TMC leaders, who have tasted prosperity at the cost of sufferings of the masses," Ghosh said.

Adhikari wondered whether the TMC would allow free and fair elections despite the deployment of central forces.

"The State Election Commission is working like a front office of the TMC. We are apprehensive about whether the SEC and TMC would allow free and fair elections despite court order and deployment of central forces. As we all know, deployment of central forces is under the jurisdiction of the local administration," he said.

The Calcutta High Court last week directed the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) to requisition more than 82,000 central forces personnel for deployment in panchayat elections.

Widespread violence over the filing of nominations has left at least eight people dead and several injured in various parts of the state.

Reacting to BJP's allegation, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee "thanked the court for ordering the deployment of central forces" and said the BJP would be defeated even if central forces were deployed to conduct the polls.

"Even if five companies are deployed per booth, there will be no difference in the poll results. In the 2021 assembly polls, TMC got 48 per cent and the BJP got 38 per cent votes. The difference was 10 per cent, but this time the difference will be 15 per cent," Banerjee said.

In the rural polls held five years ago, the TMC won 90 per cent of the panchayat seats and all 22 Zilla Parishads. However, these elections were marred by widespread violence and malpractices, with the Opposition alleging they were prevented from filing nominations in several seats across the state.

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