KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress takes the early lead as the counting of votes is underway for the panchayat elections in West Bengal. The counting started at eight o'clock this morning. Re-polling was conducted in 696 polling booths in 19 districts in the state last day. 2.06 lakh candidates are contesting in 73,887 panchayat seats. There are 5.67 crore voters in the state.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is leading in 461-gram panchayat seats. CPI(M) is leading in 108 seats and BJP in 92 seats. Meanwhile, Congress is leading in only 12 seats.

The counting of votes will be done in six phases. Gram panchayat ballots are counted first. Then the votes of the panchayat samitis and zila parishads will be counted. Officials say the counting of votes will continue till midnight. Elections were held in 3317-gram panchayats, 341 panchayat samitis and 20 zila parishads.

The counting is taking place in the presence of central forces in the context of violence related to panchayat elections. Police have been deployed at 339 counting centres and 61,636 polling booths. Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has warned that strict action will be taken against those involved in violence.