Will the panchyat elections in West Bengal happen on time? This is the question that is being raised in the state with Calcutta High Court on Tuesday lambasting the state election commission for declaring the election date—May 14—without taking into consideration the security issues.
At least nine persons, mostly from the BJP and the Congress, have already died in pre-poll violence in the state. In more than 1,500 zilla parishad seats—in little more than 12 per cent of total seats— the Trinamool Congress has already won unopposed as candidates from the BJP, the Congress and and the Left could not file nomination papers.
Justice Subrata Talukdar lashed out at the EC, saying the EC was in a hurry to declare the date for polls without sufficient preparation on the ground.
While commission had earlier suggested a three-phase poll starting from May, the poll was fixed for May 14 after the intervention of the High Court over refusal on nominations.
The High Court had then asked commission to initiate “meaningful dialogue” with all stakeholders—from ruling party to opposition parties—before declaring the dates. Almost all opposition parties went to court thereafter, telling Justice Talukdar that none of them were actually consulted about poll dates and security.
“Whenever we went to election commission, he refused to discuss with us about the security of voters and candidates,” Pratap Bandyopadhya, a BJP leader who filed the case on behalf his party, said, adding that they asked the court if this was the right atmosphere under which the elections should be held.
A similar case was also filed at the court of Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court regarding the poll preparation, and how West Bengal government directly influenced the poll process by forcing election commission to toe on its line.
Said Rabin Deb, central committee member of CPI(M), who is fighting the case on his party’s behalf, “Even High Court has now understood that the state election commission has come under the direct influence of the state government. It has also understood that the commission is in no mood to enforce its power to take decision regarding the election dates.”
Interestingly, Justice Talukdar has also been found to be agreeing with opposition parties to a great extent, and said the commission cannot exercise its power to decide on poll date now as the matter has gone to court.
“The High Court will see whether everything has been done according to the Constitution or not. The state election commission’s declared poll dates could be one of the options. The matter will be fixed at the court of the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court,” said Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, senior advocate Calcutta High Court.
West Bengal DGP S.K. Purakayastha has informed press that security forces would be brought from outside Bengal. “They are states like Odisha, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh and Assam,” the DGP said.
But in reality, none of the states has responded to the letter written by the government of India.
Former speaker of Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee lashed out at the election commission, calling it a paper tiger. “I think the state election commissioner should resign now. It’s quite apparent from the court order that he could not deal with the matter any more. I have never heard of any election in my life which had to be intervened so many times by court,” Chatterjee said.
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The matter will now be decided by the Chief Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya at his court on May 4.
Amid the violence, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday went to Delhi to participate in the meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of forming a celebration committee to mark 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Interestingly, Mamata, who had continuously kept avoiding attending meetings called by prime minister in the recent years, decided to attend this meeting.
While leaders close to her in party has said the chief minister did not want to bring politics over Gandhi, the opposition smells a rat.
“When there has been a mass killing going on in Bengal over panchayat election, how come she goes to Delhi? Like before, she could have sent one of her emissaries,” said a BJP leader in the state.
Dilip Ghosh, the state president of the BJP, said the situation is going to such an extent that Presidential rule would be only option in Bengal after a few months.