The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Friday a petition by the West Bengal unit of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) complaining against their party candidates being stopped from filing nominations for the upcoming panchayat elections in the State.
Upon mentioning by advocate Aishwarya Bhati, the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra posted the petition for urgent hearing on Friday since the last date of filing nominations is Monday.
BJP WB General Secretary Pratap Banerjee who has petitioned to the apex court stated in his petition that the party candidates were threatened by the activists of Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party in power in the state, against filing their nominations.
It further alleged that the block development officers appointed as the Assistant Panchayat Electoral Registration Officers by the West Bengal State Election Commission refused to give nomination forms to the BJP candidates, thus reducing the entire election process to a farce.
The BJP State unit also demanded police protection for its candidates along with deployment of central paramilitary forces to maintain law and order for smooth conduct of panchayat polls next month.