Bengal panchayat poll row reaches apex court
FLIP FLOP SC to hear BJP plea as state EC does a Uturn on nomination paper deadline
The battle around Bengal rural elections again moved to the Supreme Court on Tuesday as the State Election Commission withdrew its previous day’s order extending the window for filing of nomination by a day.
The top court will hear the appeal of the Bengal unit of the BJP challenging the state EC’s U-turn.
Earlier on Tuesday, responding to a BJP petition, the single bench of justice Subrata Talukdar in Calcutta high court issued an interim stay on the SEC’s order withdrawing the extension for filing nominations.
The SEC had on Monday said filing of nomination, which ended at 3 pm on Monday, could continue till 3 pm Tuesday. It withdrew this order observing that the Supreme Court had not specifically instructed such an extension.
“The high court interim order proved that our contention was right. The SEC is equipped to take all the decisions related to the election,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.
“We appealed to the court to restore democracy in Bengal. We are approaching the SEC with the order of the court for ensuring the candidates who could not file nomination can submit their papers now. If the SEC does not act, we move court for contempt,” said Pratap Banerjee, BJP leader who filed the high court petition.
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha claimed moral victory, but the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was unfazed.
“The court has said the SEC will take a decision,” said Kalyan Banerjee, advocate and Lok Sabha MP of TMC.
“The matter is coming up for hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, where Mukul Rohatgi will represent us,” BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said.
KOLKATA:
NOMINATION: SCRUTINY OF NOMINATION: WIITHDRAWAL OF NOMINATION: