The much awaited elections to 108 municipal boards of Bengal will take place on February 27. A notification to this effect was issued by the State Election Commission on Thursday. The date of counting will however be declared at a later date, SEC Saurav Das said.
“We will issue a separate notification to announce the date of counting. The entire polling process has to be completed by March 8. Starting today, the Model Code of Conduct comes into force. The last date of filing nomination is February 9,” Das said.
With the SEC notification model code of conduct comes into force from Thursday in all the 21 districts where the elections would take place. Polls to other four corporations including Siliguri in North Bengaland Asansol, Chandannagar and Bidhannagar in South Bengal had already been scheduled for February 12. The counting will be held on February14.
The Trinamool Congress recorded a thumping victory in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation which was held in December last year. The Left Front came second leaving the BJP in the third position.
The February 27, civic elections will take place about nine months after the Trinamool Congress roared back to power in State Assembly polls winning 212 seats last April-May.
Even as the SEC announced poll dates Opposition Left and BJP demanded simultaneous holding of all the elections including the ones scheduled to take place on February 12 saying the SEC was acting under the influence of the ruing ruling Trinamool Congress which wanted the results of one election to influence the other.
“It is clear that the SEC is taking instructions from the State Government which wants the February 12 elections to influence the results of February 27 elections which is not acceptable,” CPI(M)central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said.
The civic polls were likely to indicate whether the BJP had still been able to hold its number two position. For the CPI(M)-led Left Front, battle is to retain its main opposition status in most civicboards.