West Bengal Panchayat election date announced. Opposition cries foul on schedule

The West Bengal State Election Commission announced on Saturday that Panchayat elections in the state will take place on 1, 3 and 5 May. However, Opposition parties in the state are crying foul. They are asking why hasn't the State Election Commission given parties at least 45 days for campaigning.

The BJP is planning to move the court in this matter.

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said, “We met State Election Commissioner Amarendra Kumar Singh two day back and urged him to give at least 45 days’ time for campaigning. But we have received only 30 days. Moreover higher secondary school examination are yet to be finished and so it will be difficult to carry out campaigning by using microphones. We are speaking to our lawyers and we may approach the Court.”

Sujan Chakraborty CPI(M) leader said, “We have already urged the state government not to conduct the election on International Workers' Day but they have scheduled the first phase of polling on 1 May. Also, the State Election Commissioner did not mention whether they will deploy Central forces during elections or not.”

Another issue that the Opposition is raising is that there is no uniformity in the number of districts that will be voting in each phase.

While 12 districts are going to the polls on 1 May, only two districts will vote in the second phase.

Congress leader Manoj Chakraborty said, “We have demanded that Central forces should be deployed in the Panchayat election. We feel that there is some conspiracy regarding distribution of districts that are going to the polls for the first and second phase. Why are only two districts going to the polls in the second phase and 12 big districts in the first phase?"

On 1 May, polling will be held at the districts of Nadia, North 24 Pargana, South 24 Pargana, Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, West Burdwan, East Burdwan , Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram. On 3 May, elections will be held at Murshidabad and Birbhum. On 5 May, there will be polling in Coochbehar, Alipurduar , Uttar Dinajpur, Dakhsin Dinajpur, Malda and Jalpaiguri.

The SEC says that 3 lakh state government officers will be deployed for the elections.

Regarding the deployment of central forces, West Bengal Election Commissioner Amarendra Kumar Singh said” We are yet to decide on whether there will be deployment of Central forces during the Panchayat election”. This has been a major bone of contention between the BJP and the All India Trinamool Congress.

Singh dismissed the Opposition's concerns and said that there is enough time for campaigning.

Polling will be held for 48,650 gram Panchayat seats, 9,217 Panchayat Samiti seats and 825 Zilla Parishad seats. There are 43,067 polling premises and 58,467 polling stations.