Kolkata, Howrah civic polls on 19 Dec; BJP may move HC seeking elections to all municipalities together

The State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday gave its nod to the West Bengal government’s proposal to hold polls to the municipal corporations of Kolkata and neighbouring Howrah on December 19, a senior official said. The BJP said it is consulting lawyers to move the Calcutta High Court to seek directions for holding elections at one go to all municipal corporations and municipalities in West Bengal where polls are due. Elections to more than 100 civic bodies including municipal corporations of Kolkata and Howrah have been due for a long time, primarily because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. These civic bodies are being run by administrators appointed by the state government. “Polling to the 144 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and 50 wards of the Howrah Municipal Corporations will be held on December 19,” the SEC official said. The notification to this effect is likely to be issued on 25 November. The Commission is likely to call an all-party meeting on November 20 and another meeting with the administration and police soon after the issuance of the notification, the official added. The state government had proposed to the SEC that elections to Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations be held on 19 December. A BJP delegation had met the SEC on Monday and demanded that elections to all municipalities and corporations be held together, state party vice-president Pratap Banerjee said. “We are planning to move the high court on the issue. We came to the high court today to consult with our lawyers in this regard,” he said. The Trinamool Congress accused the BJP of double standards on the issue of holding polls in a single phase. “When we were demanding single-phase assembly elections in West Bengal owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the BJP was gleefully supporting 8-phase polls. Assembly elections were held under central forces. Two rounds of by-elections were also conducted after that and the BJP lost miserably in all these,” Ghosh said. The SEC official said the last date of filing nomination papers is likely to be 2 December. The papers will be scrutinised the next day and the last date of withdrawing the nomination will be 4 December.