Row over WB rural polls reaches court again
The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved both the Supreme Court and the Calcutta high court on Tuesday challenging a U-turn by the State Election Commission (SEC) , which overturned its own order to extend the deadline for filing of nominations for rural polls in the state by a day.
The matter will be heard by the apex court on Wednesday. Responding to the BJP petition, a Calcutta high court single bench of justice Subrata Talukdar issued an interim stay on the SEC’s order on Tuesday morning that withdrew Monday’s decision to extend the deadline for the filing of nominations.
The deadline was to lapse on Monday and had been extended until Tuesday before the SEC’s vote face.
In Delhi, advocate Aishwarya Bhati mentioned the application before chief justice Dipak Misra in the afternoon and said an urgent hearing was required. The state BJP unit said the poll watchdog’s last minute decision is a “colourable exercise of power” at the behest of the Mamata Banerjee government.
The apex court allowed the early hearing plea and said the case would be heard by the same bench that had on Monday declined to entertain a petition by the BJP seeking judicial interference to ensure that party candidates are able to file their nomination papers.
In Kolkata, Bengal BJP leaders claimed moral victory after the Calcutta high court’s interim order. “The high court interim order proved that our contention was right,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.
Tuesday was marked by a raft of developments turning on the SEC’s unprecedented decision to go back on its own order issued on Monday. The BJP moved both the Calcutta high court and the Supreme Court, seeking the quashing of the SEC’s order.
On the ground, confusion prevailed in the districts when candidates went to block development and sub-divisional offices to file nominations after the extension of the deadline.
“The court has said the SEC will take a decision,” said Kalyan Banerjee, advocate and Lok Sabha MP of TMC after the HC order. But Banerjee also claimed the schedule of the polls cannot be changed. He also told the media that on Wednesday, when the matter would come up for hearing in the high court, he would ask how could the same party could move two different courts with the same complaint.