West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday termed a “victory of democracy and of people” the Supreme Court’s rejection of the plea of opposition parties to cancel elections for over 20,000 uncontested local body seats in the state.
State minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee also hailed the verdict as a “a victory of Maa, Mati, Manush”, referring to Banerjee’s slogan of “mother, motherland and people”.
Rejecting the pleas, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, however, said the aggrieved candidates may file election petitions to challenge the panchayat polls in courts concerned.
Opposition parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist) alleged that only the candidates from the ruling Trinamool Congress were allowed to file the nomination papers and won all these uncontested seats.