Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday instructed the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct other civic polls at the earliest and in fewer phases.
With the next hearing due on December 23, the Calcutta High Court has asked SEC to mention the dates and the details of the rest of the civic polls by then.
“The polls should be in lesser phases so as to get the polls over at the earliest. The SEC will have to mention all the details by the next hearing,” said the HC sources.
Notably, the court also quashed the plea done by the state BJP to stay the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) polls scheduled on December 19.
“The situation is favorable to hold KMC polls so it will take place as per schedule on December 19,” mentioned the court sources.
According to BJP vice president Dilip Ghosh, the BJP knows how to run corporations as the BJP runs several municipal corporations across the country.
“The TMC had deprived the people of the state by not conducting civic polls for over two years. Now they are just trying to camouflage themselves by the people of the state,” said Ghosh.
KMC chairperson Firhad Hakim said that the BJP is afraid of public mandate for which they tried to defer the KMC polls.
“The works of didi are accepted by everyone and the BJP knows that they would lose the polls for which they wanted to cancel the KMC polls,” added hakim.
Meanwhile, three days ahead of the KMC polls, state and city police were seen conducting route marches in the probable polling booths in the city.
It can be recalled that on December 13, the High Court had asked SEC to install CCTV cameras in all the booths in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) polls.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj directed SEC to install CCTV in all 4842 booths of KMC.
“Not just in the polling booths but cameras will be installed even inside the strong room and counting centers,” said the High Court sources.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)