Kolkata: State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday submitted an affidavit in Calcutta High Court stating that the rest of the civic polls due in the state apart from Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be held in six to eight phases in keeping to the ongoing pandemic by May next year.
According to sources, the court has asked the election commission to complete all the civic polls by April.
“The election commission also mentioned that the counting of all the civic polls will be held together as there is shortage of EVM machines. The court has also instructed the SEC to give details on deployment of police force during the polls. The next hearing on this issue is on Tuesday,” said the High Court sources.
Meanwhile, new political slugfest once again started between Governor Jagdeep Dhakhar and West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay over the civic polls.
Expressing grief Biman said that had the Governor passed the bill on Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) polls, then HMC would have been conducted along with KMC on December 19.
“It is really unfortunate that the Governor didn’t pass the bill for which we couldn’t hold HMC polls along with KMC. The Governor should have been more cooperative. If three farm laws can be repealed in Parliament then why can’t the Governor pass the bill,” said Biman.
Taking to Twitter, Governor said, “Stunned & surprised @BimanBanerjee18 stance at Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 pending consideration for want of as response @MamataOfficial to issues flagged on Nov 24. Worrisome: Speaker WBLA for over a year has not made available record in other matters.”
West Bengal Transport Minister and KMC chairperson Firhad Hakim urged the Governor that he should respect his post and should not work at the behest of the saffron camp.
“The post of the Governor is a respectable post but the comments of Dhankhar seem that he is parroting BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar or LoP Suvendu Adhikari. Dhankhar should not be biased,” said Firhad.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari also claimed that the Howrah Municipal Corporation polls got deferred due to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as ‘according to her will she seperated Bally from Howrah and again rejoins’.
