A day after Calcutta High Court established supremacy of the State Election Commission on matters related to the rural and municipal polls triggering speculations of an appeal in the apex court, the Bengal Government on Friday said it would accept the court verdict and help hold panchayat elections on time.
The court had in an earlier order directed all the parties to ensure the completion of poll process by mid-July.
Emerging from a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, State Panchayat Minister Subroto Mukherjee said, “There will be no problem in holding the polls as the Government has decided not to prefer an appeal before the Supreme Court.”
The Minister, however, would not dwell on the procurement of security forces which the Government is bound to provide as per the court order. The Government provided only 40 companies of forces during the nomination stage as against a requisition of 300 companies by the Commission.
The shortfall in forces led to large-scale violence even as the ruling party candidates won more than 13 per cent seats “uncontested.”
Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya on Friday said the polls were only an eyewash as thousands of their candidates were either prevented from filing nomination or forced to withdraw their candidature in the face of Trinamool threats. The left and the BJP also levelled similar allegations.
“The Government, from the very beginning, is against bringing Central forces because it does not want impartial elections,” Bhattacharya said, adding there were places where the Opposition failed to file even a single nomination.
“The Trinamool knows that the ground beneath its feat is collapsing fast as can be proved by the Howrah lok Sabha by-elections and so they have resorted to large-scale pre-poll violence. There is no other way to ensure free and fair poll but to bring in Central forces.”
The State needs at least 1.25 lakh forces in the first phase of polls in nine district but it has only about 55 lakh.