State panchayat elections would be held in three phases on 1, 3 and 5 May across 20 districts.

The counting would be held on 8 May and the entire poll process would be completed by 15 May, said Mr AK Singh, commissioner, State Election Commission, on Saturday.

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The commission, however, did not clarify whether central forces would be requisitioned for conducting the polls but sources said that it has asked the state government how many armed police personnel can be spared for the three phases. A total of 12 districts will go for polls in the first phase on 1 May.

These are Nadia, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, East Midnapore and West Midnapore.

In the second phase on 3 May, polling would be held in two districts namely Birbhum and Murshidabad.

Most of the districts of north Bengal will go for polling in the last phase on 5 May. These are Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda.

The polling would be held from 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.The repoll for the first phase will be held on 3 May, repoll for the second phase will be on 5 May and for the third phase on 7 May.

“With the state notifying the polls on Saturday, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has come into force immediately. The subsequent notification by the State Election Commission will be issued on 2 April. Nominations can be filed from 2 to 9 April. The scrutiny of nominations would be held on 11 April and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is 16 April,” said Mr Singh.

Meanwhile, the State Election Commission has sent a requisition to the state government for deploying one observer per block and per district respectively and around 2.5 lakh polling personnel to hold the elections peacefully. Senior police officials and bureaucrats were also present at the meeting.

“It is for the commission to decide on whether central forces are required for panchayat polls or not. We don’t interfere in the commission’s work. Democracy has to be nurtured through a democratic process and definitely not autocracy,” said Miss Banerjee before leaving Nabanna when asked on the deployment of central forces.

There are a total of 48,650 gram panchayat seats, 9,217 panchayat samity seats and 825 zilla parishad seats. There are 43,067 polling premises and 58,467 polling stations.

The total voters are 5,08,35,002. With the imposition of the MCC, a set of norms will be in place for the entire state. Under which, no minister or minister rank official can use pilot car (with or without beacon light unless there are security threats assessed by appropriate police officers) or summon any election-related official.

The MCC norms for panchayat areas include bar on inauguration or laying of foundation stone and introduction of new schemes though the existing ones would continue. In case of natural disaster, permission for starting new work or distribution will be taken up by the respective district magistrate or the commission.