West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said that he has asked State  Election Commissioner Saurav Das to meet him on Tuesday over preparedness for Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, which are scheduled for December 19.

“State Election Commissioner Saurav Das will update Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on December 7 at Raj Bhawan on issues KMC elections preparedness and deployment CAPF. Governor had indicated that SEC is constitutionally mandated to ensure free and fair elections,” office of the West Bengal Governor tweeted on Monday.

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According to the notification issued by the State Election Commission (SEC) on November 25, voting will be held on December 19 from 7 am to 5 pm. The counting of votes will be held on December 21. This will be the first major electoral battle in West Bengal after the May 2021 assembly polls, which the Trinamool Congress won comprehensively. The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC registered a landslide victory in polls winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly.

The BJP lost the polls but emerged as the second-largest party with 77 seats. Banerjee blames Dhankhar for Howrah poll delay: A war of words has ensued between Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Speaker Biman Banerjee over the approval to the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which aims to carve out Bally Municipality in Howrah district from the jurisdiction of the Howrah Municipal Corporation.

While Mr Banerjee blamed Mr Dhankhar for pushing the Howrah civic elections into uncertainty by not approving the amendment bill, the latter alleged that the state government had not provided the details that he had sought. Mr Banerjee today said that Mr Dhankhar did not sign the amendment bill till now as a result of which Howrah polls are not being held on time.

The reason as to which Mr Dhankhar is not signing it is unknown to me, he added. Mr Dhankhar had sent back the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 on 24 November seeking details from the state government.

Responding to Mr Banerjee, Mr Dhankhar said: “We need to work in coordination and harmony with the state government. I had asked for some documents but though many days have passed they have not provided me anything”.