Single-phase rural elections in West Bengal on May 14

BEFORE THE POLLING PROCESS WAS STALLED FOLLOWING OPPOSITION MOVING THE HC, THE EC HAD NOTIFIED THREEPHASE VOTING BETWEEN MAY 1 AND 5

KOLKATA: West Bengal panchayat elections will be held on May 14, the state election commission said on Thursday, triggering allegations from opposition parties that the single-phase voting decision was taken to oblige the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Before the polling process was stalled following opposition parties moving the Calcutta high court, alleging widespread violence, the poll body had notified three-phase voting between May 1 and May 5. “The elections will be held on May 14. Repoll, if any, will be held on May 16. The date of counting has not yet been decided,” said the poll body’s secretary, Nilanjan Shandilya. “Polling will be held between 7am and 5 pm,” he added.

At the time of the copy being published, the poll body was yet to issue the formal notification. Election officials did not comment on the buzz that counting of votes could take place on May 17.

Over the last few days, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s stated position was the state government did not want the polls to be held during Ramzan month (likely to begin around mid-may), or during peak summer, or rains. During the day, the state government formally informed state election commissioner AK Singh that it was in favour of singlephase polling. “The single phase was decided in view of the Ramzan month,” said Shandilya.

The CM said, “We are happy with the new schedule. We demanded that the polls must be held before Ramzan. Now, I request all opposition parties to contest the polls instead of getting into unnecessary mud slinging.” She added, “I have information that people from outside Bengal have been brought in to create trouble. We will not tolerate this.”

Opposition leaders, who have accused the TMC of unleashing violence during the nomination phase that claimed seven lives, pointed out the state has around 46,000 armed police personnel and 12,000 more without firearms, while there are more than 58,400 polling stations. “It appears that the poll panel wants to conduct the elections with the help of TMC workers and not policemen. Is this an election at all?” said Pratap Banerjee, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit.

Congress MLA and leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly, Abdul Mannan, said, “The polling process has turned into a farce.” He accused the election commissioner of “taking every step at the instruction of the state secretariat”.

The CPI(M) too attacked the poll body. “The state election commission has turned the polls into child’s play. How can polls be held in a day when there are not enough security personnel?” said CPI(M) leader and advocate Bikash Bhattacharyya.

Despite attempts, the state election commissioner could not be reached for comment.

OPPN PARTIES FILE FEWER NOMINATIONS

The BJP succeeded in fielding candidates from just 57% of West Bengal’s gram panchayat seats, allegedly due to attempts by the ruling TMC to prevent opposition parties from filing nominations.

While Left Front candidates filed nominations from 40% of the seats, the Congress remained a distant third at 15%. The Trinamool, by contrast, fielded 58,978 candidates from 48,650 seats across the state. There is nothing untoward about this, considering that more than one candidate from a party are allowed to file nominations from one seat.

The ruling party, however, trashed the accusations.