Kolkata: At a time when the BJP is asking to hold all the civic polls together, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday filed an affidavit in Calcutta High Court stating that in keeping with the current pandemic and rise in Omicron variant the rest of the civic polls will be held in two phases.
According to SEC sources, civic polls of Howrah, Asansol, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar and Siliguri will take place on January 22 and rest of the civic polls will be on February 27.
“In order to avoid gathering in large numbers and also to provide adequate security during the polls, the SEC had decided to conduct the polls in two phases so that post-poll the pandemic situation doesn’t get worse,” claimed the SEC sources.
It can be recalled that on December 14, High Court had asked SEC to conduct other civic polls at the earliest and in fewer phases.
“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.
Meanwhile, the hearing of CAPF deployment in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and BJP’s plea over violence during KMC polls were also scheduled today.
It is pertinent to mention that no sooner SEC had announced that KMC polls will be held on December 19, the saffron camp crying foul against the SEC had also moved High Court demanding conducting of all civic polls together and also alleged that SEC is working at the behest of the Trinamool Congress and just to get political mileage the TMC is conducting civic polls separately.
