The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) today announced that polls to 108 municipalities in about 21 districts in the state will be conducted on 27 February while all election processes will be completed by 8 March.
The state election commissioner, Sourav Das, today announced that the nomination filing began from today while the last day for filing nominations, is 9th February. The scrutiny of nominations would be held on 10 February. The last day of withdrawal of candidature is 12 February. The election to 108 municipal bodies would take place on 27 February from 7 am to 5 pm.
The SEC also pointed out that in South Dum Dum Municipality, ward 29 would, however, not be going for polls as per orders from Calcutta High Court. The court had earlier asked for a postponement of the civic polls, which were scheduled for January 22. The State Election Commission, later, had further extended the poll dates to February 27.
The districts where polls will be held include Darjeeling, Cooch-Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, East Burdwan and Birbhum.
However, with the announcement of the municipality polls, the Opposition BJP has criticised the decision of the state government and held it responsible for allegedly putting the lives of people in danger since the spread of coronavirus, continues. A delegation from the party had recently approached the commission and requested further postponement of the polls to March due to the covid scenario that is yet to improve especially in North Bengal.
BJP’s national vice president Dilip Ghosh said that “for the last two years, our preparations were afoot to hold the polls but the state government remained reluctant. Now when the situation is precarious due to the pandemic, the government wants to hold the polls and endanger lives of the voters.”