The Opposition in Bengal received a minor concession ahead of the upcoming civic polls to the remaining 104 municipal bodies (the Trinamul has already won four of these uncontested), as the state election commission announced that counting would be held on March 2, two days after voting on February 27.
Opposition parties in Bengal have been demanding from the state poll panel to have at least two days in hand for scrutiny and re-polling between the day of voting and counting, as a redressal to all complaints of electoral malpractices.
The demand was denied ahead of the elections to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation held in December, and four other municipal corporations of Siliguri, Chandernagore, Bidhannagar and Asansol this month.
According to sources in the state election commission, as the next election will be held in over 100 civic bodies, it will require at least a day to complete the process of scrutiny, which is why an extra day has been kept.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who is campaigning in his home district of East Midnapore, said polls could not be held in Bengal without central forces.
“That is just one aspect of the poll process. If our candidates are not allowed to file their nomination papers or forced to withdraw from the fray then what would be the purpose of the poll process,” asked Shamik Lahiri, CPM’s South 24-Parganas district secretary. “We will resist wherever we can. We are telling the people to step out of their homes and come to the polling booths. Wherever we can, we will protect them.”
In Calcutta High Court, a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj has asked the state government and the state election commission to file an affidavit within three days, and take steps to secure electronic voting machines.
The BJP counsel has furnished a list of the party nominees who were either stopped from filing nominations or were forced to withdraw later.
“In any election we have to fight against Trinamul Congress, the state and Calcutta Police and the state election commission. People are losing interest in elections. They know what the result will be and are no longer going to polling booths,” said Shamik Bhattacharya, a BJP leader.
Bhattacharya said the BJP would stick to its demand on central forces for the civic polls.
“People of Bengal want elections to be held under central forces. We are clear on our demands. The state election commission, police and state administration cannot conduct free and fair polls,” he said.
The BJP has demanded that the state poll panel be instructed to deploy central paramilitary forces at least 72 hours before the date of elections till the day of counting.
“We have faith in the judiciary. When the Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls were held, CCTV cameras were found broken, rival polling agents were dragged out by their collars, EVMs were damaged... Even after seeing all this, the state election commission had said polling was peaceful. One person lost a limb in a bomb attack, and the state election commission had said something like this might have happened. We have brought this to the court’s notice. Now it is up to the court to decide,” Bhattacharya said.