Police along with security forces carried out a search operation in the Basanti area of South 24 Praganas district of West Bengal on July 7. As per reports, police had information on the presence of bombs and arms in the area ahead of Panchayat Polls scheduled to be held on July 8. A thorough check was done by heavy security force personnel deployed in the area during the search operation. Notably, there have been several incidents of clashes and arson in the state between the political parties over the panchayat election. In preparation for the panchayat polls, an additional 822 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were deployed in West Bengal on July 3. The State Election Commission (SEC) had earlier made a requisition to the Ministry of Home Affairs asking for the deployment of central forces in the state. This came after the High Court order that had asked the SEC to deploy central forces in the state, similar to or more than that deployed in the 2013 panchayat polls in Bengal. Around 5.67 crore voters are likely to exercise their franchise to choose representatives for nearly 928 seats across 22 zilla parishads, 9,730 panchayat Samiti, and 63,239-gram panchayats seats. West Bengal has 3,341 gram panchayats and the number of village panchayat election centers is 58,594. There are 63,239 seats at the Gram Panchayat level, 9730 at Panchayat Samiti and 928 at the Zila Parishad level. In 2018, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won uncontested, 34 per cent of the seats in panchayat elections, which also saw various instances of violence. Trinamool Congress has won many seats uncontestably in the 2023 elections as well.