West Bengal Municipal elections: BJP demands countermanding of polls in 3 civic bodies

Kolkata: The BJP has urged the State Election Commission to countermand elections to three municipalities in West Bengal which the ruling Trinamool Congress won without any contest. The TMC was declared winner in Sainthia and Budge Budge municipalities on Wednesday, and in Dinhata on Thursday. Elections to 108 municipalities in the state are scheduled to be held on February 27.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday told reporters after meeting senior SEC officials that the BJP wants the polls to the three civic bodies be countermanded due to "intimidation and threat to BJP candidates, and acts of physically preventing them from filing nomination papers".

"We have told SEC Sourav Das and commission secretary N Shandilya that what happened in the three civic bodies was nothing short of mockery of democracy. If the ruling party can hold up the municipal elections for about two years, why can't elections be deferred in these three civic bodies by another six months?" he said.

Adhikari said the BJP will launch an agitation if the demand was not met. The BJP leader also demanded the deployment of central armed paramilitary forces in elections to four municipal corporations of Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Chandernagore and Asansol on February 12.

"The MHA will despatch consignments of central forces in a 24-hour notice. Let the SEC being an autonomous body take a decision to ensure free and fair polls. Let the central forces be also deployed in the February 27 polls in 108 municipalities," he said.

The TMC won 13 of the 16 wards of Sainthia municipality, 12 of the 20 wards in Budge Budge, and 13 of the 16 wards in Sainthia uncontested.

Reacting to Adhikari's demand, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, "Who is Suvendu Adhikari to ask for countermanding the municipal polls? Does he expect the SEC to dance to his tunes?"

Dinhata's TMC MLA Udayan Guha denied the BJP allegations. "It is the BJP which had unleashed a reign of terror in Coochbehar during the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections. But now people are turning against them. The BJP is not finding people to contest in Dinhata, and the Congress and CPI(M) have long been decimated," he said.