Calcutta HC says division bench will take final call on date of Bengal rural polls

The date of the Bengal rural elections will be finalised by a division bench after verifying security arrangements across the state, the Calcutta high court stated on Tuesday, possibly throwing a spanner in the state election commission’s plans to hold the polls on May 14.

Pulling up the poll panel for not ensuring adequate security arrangements, the single-judge bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar said a division bench will determine the polling date after conducting a proper evaluation.

The judge was hearing multiple petitions filed by the BJP, CPI(M) and the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS) in this regard. Opposition parties have accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of resorting to violence and intimidation tactics ahead of the rural polls. Significantly, a record 34.2% of the 58,692 seats at the gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad levels were won by Trinamool candidates without contest.

On April 20, Justice Talukdar had ordered the state election commission to extend the deadline for filing nominations by a day. He was responding to allegations by opposition parties that Trinamool supporters prevented a number of their candidates from submitting nomination papers.

Ten days later, the judge observed that the poll body was not doing enough to ensure proper security in the run-up to the elections. Opposition parties expressed their appreciation for the court ruling.

“We are glad that the court has focused on the security aspect (of the elections). It stated that the polling date can be announced only after security arrangements are finalised,” said PDS general secretary Samir Putatunda.

BJP Bengal unit general secretary Pratap Banerjee also welcomed the high court’s decision. “There is widespread apprehension that people will not be able to cast their votes freely and fairly, especially after what happened during the nomination phase. We only want to ensure free-and-fair elections, not stop the polls,” he said.

Bikash Bhattacharyya, advocate and CPI(M) leader, said it was “clear” that the single bench was not satisfied with security arrangements. “This is why the court said that May 14 is not the final date. I feel it will not be possible for the state election commission to satisfy the court on the issue of security arrangements,” he added.

But Kalyan Banerjee, Lok Sabha MP and advocate for the Trinamool Congress, believed it was still too premature for opposition parties to start rejoicing. “The court has only ruled that polling on May 14 is tentative. Polling will be held on that day if the court is satisfied with the security arrangements,” he said, accusing the PDS and CPI(M) of “teaming up” to stop the elections.

Justice Talukdar had earlier asked the state election commission to finalise the poll schedule after holding “meaningful discussions” with all the major stakeholders. However, the opposition parties later alleged that they were not approached for any talks in this regard.

“The discussions were held only with the state government,” remarked BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wanted the elections to be held before the start of the Ramzan month, possibly on May 16. Incidentally, all the five phases of the 2013 panchayat polls were held during that period.

State election commission chief AK Singh had announced three-phase polling on May 1, 3 and 5 in a notification issued on March 31. However, the poll body later switched to a single-phase schedule on May 14 without offering any reason.

Justice Talukdar has fixed May 4 as the next date of hearing in the case.