The panchayat poll in West Bengal will be held in a single phase on July 8, State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday. The election will be held for three-tier panchayats across 20 districts and two-tier panchayats in hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
The election will be held across 3,317 gram panchayats in West Bengal across 63,329 gram panchayat seats; 9,730 panchayat samiti seats; and 928 zilla parishad seats. The total number of electors for the panchayat poll in the State stands at about 5.67 crore.
The State Election Commissioner said that he would take a decision on the deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in consultation with the State government. The demand for deployment of the CAPF has been raised by the political parties in the Opposition, considering the history of violence during the panchayat poll.
The announcement of dates for the panchayat poll comes a day after Mr. Sinha, former Chief Secretary of West Bengal government joined as the State Election Commissioner.
The panchayat poll in 2018 was held with the deployment of the State police and marred by violence. The ruling Trinamool Congress won about 24% seats at the panchayat level without any contest. The panchayat poll across the State comes almost a year before the 2024 Lok Sabha poll and is considered as an indicator of the political parties’ strength on the ground.
Time not adequate
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said that the dates had been announced unilaterally without holding a single all party meeting at the block level, district level or State level. Mr. Adhikari raised questions on the time allotted for filing of nominations, that starts on June 9 and concludes on June 15, stating that it was not adequate.
“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha would be held responsible for any casualty resulting due to the violence which might erupt during the election, because of this hasty declaration, lack of application of reasonable diligence and lack of consideration towards proper security arrangements,” the BJP leader said.
The Opposition parties have also given hints that they might approach the courts over the matter.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the Opposition was making excuses as it could not find candidates for all the seats at the panchayat level. Mr. Ghosh said that there were no laws that mandated the deployment of the CAPF in the panchayat poll in the State.
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