Even as Bengal continued to witness a steep hike in corona cases, the State Election Commission on Monday told the Calcutta High Court that it would go ahead with the January 22 elections to the four municipal corporations of Asansol, Siliguri, Bidhannagar and Chandannagar elections as per schedule.
Asked earlier by the Court to file an affidavit noting its stance on the holding of elections the SEC said that it had put all the pandemic protocols in place banning large gatherings and rallies restricted and asking the candidates to organize online campaigns.
Hearing a petition, seeking postponement of the polls, in view of rising corona cases, the Court had earlier directed the SEC to give its views. The matter was likely to be heard on Tuesday.
Amid rising corona graph that on Sunday saw 24,287 new cases ---highest single day spike so far --- Bengal BJP president SukantoMajumdar too tested positive and had to be hospitalized, party sources said.
Lambasting the Trinamool Congress and its “electoral ally” SEC, BJP on Monday said that the State ruling party had no sympathy either for thepeople or for its administrative staff including the police “otherwisethey would not have thrust an election on the people.”
State spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that “the way the Government and the SEC are behaving is proof enough that they do not value people’s lives,” adding “whatever is going on in the name of elections is nothing but a Tamasha (drama) as no party is allowed to go to for campaigning.”
He said “both the voters and candidates are taking part in the polls in captivity because the parties will not be able to campaign and the voters will not be able to go to the booths to cast their votes … We have been asking people about what they would do on the polling day and they are saying that they may not go to vote at the risk of getting infected … this is not a vote but a tamasha where the foregone conclusion is written on the wall.”
BJP apart, the Left and the Congress too have asked for postponement of elections to a future date when the corona graph falls.
CPI(M)central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty too wondered, why “when they could postpone polls and appoint administrators in all the municipalities from March 2020 onwards when there was no corona inBengal why are they conducting polls now when the virus has invadedBengal as never before.”