Bengal poll

“Tuesday’s order of Calcutta high court keeps the SEC’s Monday order alive,” said Makhanlal Majumdar, former SEC of Bihar.

To step back from his order issued about 12 hours earlier, State Election Commissioner AK Singh wrote that it contained legal infirmities as pointed out by ruling party vice-president, MP Kalyan Banerjee, and the special secretary to the state government in separate letters.

Singh’s decision generated intense controversy. “Trinamool Congress is terrorising the SEC. The commissioner should move court,” said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.

“I have reason to believe that extreme pressure was brought on SEC AK Singh after he issued the order last night,” said BJP Bengal president Dilip Ghosh.

CPI(M) legislator and the leader of the Left parties in the Bengal assembly, Sujan Chakraborty, said Singh took the decision out of fear. “The flip flop proved there is no democracy in Bengal,” he said.

Incidents of violence were alleged on Tuesday too. Firoza Begam, the Congress MLA of Raninagar in Murshidabad district, was dragged out of her car and beaten.

She was taken to Berhampore hospital.

The rural polls grabbed headlines since nominations began on April 2 with all the opposition parties alleging that Trinamool supporters were preventing their candidates from filing nomination papers. At least three people were killed and hundreds injured in dozens of clashes across districts.

After the nomination window closed at 3 pm on Monday, it was found that the ruling party won two zilla parishads of Birbhum and Bankura without a single vote being cast. In Birbhum, TMC won 41 out of 42 zilla parishad seats, while in Bankura 26 out of 46 seats were won without a contest.

In Nalhati of Birbhum district, ruling party supporters celebrated with gulal and sweets after the SEC withdrew the order allowing nomination on Tuesday.