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News Desk: The BJP on Tuesday said it is consulting lawyers to move the Calcutta high court to seek directions for holding elections at one go to all municipal corporations and municipalities in West Bengal where the polls are due.
Elections to more than 100 civic bodies including municipal corporations of Kolkata and neighbouring Howrah have been due for a long time.
A BJP delegation had met the SEC on Monday and demanded that elections to all municipalities and corporations be held together, state party vice-president Pratap Banerjee said.
The TMC accused the BJP of double standards, saying when the ruling party demanded a single-phase assembly poll, the saffron camp supported an eight phase election which was held earlier this year.
“The TMC government is dictating to the State Election Commission (SEC) when the elections will be held” Pratap Banerjee said.
The SEC is mandated to declare the dates of municipal elections in consultation with the state government.
The state government has proposed to the SEC that elections to Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations be held on December 19, but the poll body is yet to make any announcement in this regard.
“We are planning to move the high court on the issue. We came to the high court today to consult with our lawyers in this regard” he said.
TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh charged the BJP with double standards on the issue of holding polls in a single phase.
“When we were demanding single-phase assembly elections in West Bengal owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the BJP was gleefully supporting 8-phase polls. Assembly elections were held under central forces. Two rounds of by-elections were also conducted after that and the BJP lost miserably in all these” Ghosh said.
The saffron party is staring at “sure defeat” in the municipal elections, and that is why it is making such demands to divert the attention of people, he claimed.
