Calcutta, July 2: A section of minority leaders in Bengal today blamed the state government for the scheduling of the panchayat polls in the holy month of Ramazan.

Peerzada Toha Siddique, the director of Furfura Darbar Sharif in Hooghly, said: “I had called her (Mamata Banerjee) up from Saudi Arabia, where I had gone for a pilgrimage (last month). She had assured me the polls would not be held by inconveniencing anybody. But when I returned, I found that all the five phases are during Ramazan.”

“From reports in newspapers, it seems that the lawyers representing the state government forgot to mention about Ramazan while arguing in the Supreme Court. The inconvenience Muslims will face if the rural polls take place during Ramazan came only as an afterthought,” Siddique said.

Raisuddin Khan, the president of the Welfare Party of India, said: “Members of the minority community will face difficulty in voting during Ramazan but a little bit of foresight from the government could have saved us the trouble.”

Siddiqullah Chowdhury, the state committee president of the All India United Democratic Front, held the chief minister “a hundred times” responsible for the panchayat polls during the month of Ramazan. He, however, appealed to everyone to take part in the polls and maintain peace.

All Bengal Minority Youth Federation general secretary Mohammad Kamruzzaman said: “We will continue with our protests (against polls during Ramazan).”