Much to the relief of Congress backed Left Front Rajya Sabha candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya the Election Commission on Tuesday cancelled the nomination of Dinesh Bajaj an Independent nominee backed by the Trinamool Congress on technical grounds.
Bajaj a former TMC MLA had filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections barely a minute before the closure of the deadline.
With the cancellation Bajaj’s nomination only five candidates remain in the fray for five seats indicating that Bengal will see no contest in the elections for the Upper House. The other four candidates are former TMC MPs Dinesh Trivedi, Subroto Bakshi, Mausam Benazir Noor, and Arpita Ghosh. All but Bakshi had suffered a defeat at the hands of the BJP candidates in the May 2019 parliamentary elections.
A much relieved Bhattacharya who had last time suffered a fate almost similar to that of Bajaj later said “a conspiracy being hatched by the TMC and the BJP to defeat democratic forces has finally been defeated on technical grounds … The BJP and TMC had conspired to field a common candidate in the last moment so as to ensure cross-voting by pumping in ill-gotten money.”
Meanwhile after the State Election Commission postponed the civic poll process for the time being in view of Corona threat the State Government is reportedly planning to bring an ordinance to appoint an administrator for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Senior State Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim on Tuesday said that the Government has no choice but to get the polls conducted in the month April which seems unlikely due to Corona threat or bring an ordinance appointing an administrator for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
Much to the chagrin of the opposition BJP the Mayor said unlike the Bengal Municipal Act or Howrah Municipal Corporation Act there is no provisions to appoint an administrator for the KMC. “In that case an ordinance will have to be brought to that effect if at all no election can be conducted in April,” he said.
Reacting to Hakim’s statements senior State BJP leader Sayantan Basu said the TMC was trying to evade polls and avoid a sure defeat.
“They know that their defeat is certain and so they are trying to bring an ordinance for Kolkata. We know that there is a Corona threat. But they can wait till the month of May when the polls can be conducted. The present KMC board has its term till May… They are trying to hide behind Corona virus to escape the polls,” he said.
Elsewhere the State Government took extraordinary measures to check Corona proliferation by shutting down all the cinema halls and even shootings at Tollygunge film city for the next two weeks or so.
Apart from this all the historical monuments like Hazarduari, Coochbehar House etc were closed for the public even as about 6,300 suspected people were forced into home isolation.
The Corona scare took its toll on transport business too with most thoroughfares wearing a near-deserted look. Senior officials at Kolkata Metro Railway said a drop in ticket sale by at least 1.5 lakh per day on an average. Lack of passengers led the Indian Railways on the other hand to cancel a number of trains including Howrah-Mumbai Duranto Express, Puri Express and a number of local and passenger trains, sources said.