In a major blow to the Mamata Banerjee government and West Bengal State Election Commission, the Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the state election commission to declare new date(s) for the panchayat election. The court has also asked the commission to give a new date to all political parties, who could not file nominations due to massive political violence in the state allegedly instigated by the Trinamool Congress. The election was scheduled to start on May 1.
The state election commissioner, Amarendra Singh, had earlier extended the date of nominations on April 7, but within a couple of hours, he withdrew his order surprisingly, which opposition parties alleged was done at the behest of the state government.
Justice Subrata Talukdar on Friday asked the state election commission “to talk to all stakeholders” to decide on new dates for the panchayat election.
“The entire judgement would follow later,” the High Court said.
Though the court usually does not interfere with the election process, but as there has to be three weeks gap between the filing of nominations and poll dates, the court had to ask the commission to declare new dates.
Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal BJP president, called the order a major win for the BJP and all opposition parties.
Ghosh told THE WEEK, “By asking the commission to order fresh dates and extending the date of nominations by another day, the court has exposed the commission, which works under the pressure of the state government. If the chief minister is left with some manners, she should resign.”
Ghosh, however, said that there would be little scope for complacency for the BJP as the Trinamool Congress would again try to block the opposition parties from filing nominations.
“I cannot talk about other parties. But I can tell you BJP would know how to resist the Trinamool Congress. If they understand the language of violence, we would be ready to show that to them,” said Ghosh.
Rabin Deb, a senior CPI(M) leader, who was in the High Court on Friday said that it was a big blow for the ruling party.
“The election commissioner had earlier granted a day's extension for filing nominations. Shortly after that, senior ministers of the state government went to his office and gave him a mouthful. So he had to take back the order. The judgement is a landmark one for the commission to work honestly and efficiently. The election commissioner should not act in a partisan way,” said Deb.
Kalyan Banerjee, senior advocate in the Calcutta High Court and MP of Trinamool Congress, refused to accept the contention that the order was a victory for the opposition.
“The High Court has dismissed their prayer for halting the election. CPI(M) and BJP wanted to remove the election commissioner from his chair. The court has also refused to act on it,” Kalyan said.
This is the second time the Mamata government received a setback from the judiciary regarding panchayat elections. The last time was in 2013 when the matter went to the Supreme Court, which asked for deployment of Central paramilitary forces. The BJP is now saying that it would file another petition requesting for Central forces during panchayat election.
The Trinamool Congress has earlier celebrated winning many seats unopposed in the three-tier panchayat election.