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4 municipal corporation elections in West Bengal on Jan 22, results on Jan 25
West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday announced that the model code of conduct for the four civic bodies in Asansol, Bidhannagar, Siliguri and Chandannagar has come into force
KOLKATA: The West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday announced polls in four civic bodies in the state including Asansol, Bidhannagar, Siliguri and Chandannagar on January 22. Counting will be held on January 25. The announcement triggered protests from opposition parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and CPIM, which also walked out of the all-party meeting held by the panel earlier in the day.
“The model code of conduct will come into force from Monday evening. The nomination process will start from Tuesday, and the last date of nomination is January 3. There are around two million electors in the four civic bodies,” SK Das, commissioner of the state poll panel, said.
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhakhar, said in a Twitter post that though the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, which proposes to carve out Bally municipality from Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC), is still pending, the poll panel can hold HMC polls with 66 wards as in 2015.
The opposition too upped the ante against the poll panel questioning why elections were only being held in four civic bodies and Howrah was not included in the list when the state government recently told the Calcutta high court that elections to five civic bodies including Howrah will be held in January.
“They (SEC) and state government… have decided not to allow the new electors (who turns 18 in January 2022) to cast their vote. The BJP boycotted the all-party meeting,” said Arjun Singh, BJP MP.
“The SEC is doing everything to favour the ruling party. We are not a party to this decision. We have boycotted the all-party meeting,” said Rabin Deb, CPIM leader.
The poll panel, however, said that the dates of the elections were fixed in consultation with the state government as per law.
“Civic elections are announced in consultation with the state government. We are not holding the elections to the Howrah Municipal Corporation for now as we have not heard anything on this from the state government. We have adopted the electoral roll published by the Election Commission of Indi which was updated on November 1, 2021,” Das said.
Elections in another 119 municipal bodies, which are pending for more than a year, are likely to be held in February 2022.
Earlier this month West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) swept the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) polls by winning 134 out of 144 wards. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finished second with three seats. The Congress and the Left won two wards each.
