West Bengal: State's Panchayat Polls To Be Held On July 8

Kolkata: A day after former West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha took charge as the State Election Commissioner (SEC), on Thursday he announced the election date of the upcoming panchayat poll on July 8 from 7 am to 5 pm.

Addressing the media, Sinha said that the nominations for the elections will start from Friday and will go on till June 15 (except Sundays). The scrutiny of the same will be till June 17 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is June 20.

Regarding deployment of central forces during the rural polls, the state election commissioner asked people to have ‘faith’ on state police.

“In case of a special situation we will inform the state government and then special arrangements can be made. We should keep faith in the state police,” mentioned Sinha.

Political slugfest

Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said that TMC will win no matter who will be in charge of security.

“During the last Assembly election, despite hike in Covid cases there were eight phases of election under central forces. The result was that TMC has won and even in rural polls whether it is central force, state police or civic volunteer TMC will mark its victory,” said Ghosh. CPI (M) leader Kaustuv Chattopadhyay questioned how the state election commissioner can declare the date without holding an all party meeting.

'Murder' of Democracy in West Bengal

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari taking to Twitter said, “Murder of Democracy in West Bengal. For the first time ever, the Panchayat Elections have been announced unilaterally without holding a single All Party Meeting at the Block levels, District Levels or at the State Level. There hasn't been any discussion on the security arrangements for the single phase Elections. The time duration allotted for filing of nominations starts from tomorrow, June 9, Friday, with June 15 being the last date. June 10 and 11 being the weekend, no official work would be possible. The intention of the WB State Election Commission is very clear. From the manner of declaration itself, it's clear that they would be acting actively as the Frontal Organisation of the Regional TMC Party.