West Bengal State Election Commission on Saturday decided to postpone elections to four municipal corporations in the State.
Elections to Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Chandernagore Municipal Corporation, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and Asansol Municipal Corporation will be held on February 12. Polls to these four municipal corporations were earlier scheduled on January 22.
A notification by the State Election Commission pointed out that the decision has been taken in “compliance with the solemn order of Calcutta High Court, in the matter WPA(P) No. 4 of 2022 Bimal Bhattacharya vs State of West Bengal”, and “consideration of the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic situation”.
The Calcutta High Court on Friday has urged the West Bengal State Election Commission take a decision in respect of the postponement of date of proposed elections to four municipal corporations for a short period of four to six weeks.
“Hence, we dispose of the present petition with a direction to the State Election Commission to consider the galloping speed with which the COVID-19 cases are increasing and also to take into account the issue if holding of elections in such a situation will be in the public interest and if free and fair elections will be possible on the dates notified, and take a decision in respect of the postponement of date of elections of aforesaid four municipal corporations for a short period of 4 to 6 weeks,” an order bench by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee said.
The decision by the State Election Commission to postpone polls by three weeks was welcomed by all the political parties. Political parties in Opposition including the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had urged the Commission to postpone the polls. BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that despite the High Court order to postpone the polls by four weeks, the State government and WBSEC has not fully accepted it. Trinamool Congress leader and State’s Minister Partha Chatterjee said that the State government and WBSEC have taken the decision considering the gravity of the situation. Mr. Chatterjee also referred that civic polls in the State are being deferred Assembly polls to five States are being held as per schedule.
About 17 lakh voters across four districts of the State will exercise their franchise to elect over 200 ward councilors of these four municipal corporations.
New relaxations
Meanwhile, the State government extended the existing COVID-19 restrictions till January 31. The State government allowed additional relaxations allowing200 people in a marriage ceremony at a timr or 50 % seating capacity. “Mela /fair may be allowed in open air venue in a restricted manner, following COVID appropriate discipline and protocols,” the notification said. West Bengal on January 14 recorded 22,645 new cases of infections and the load of active cases had crossed 1.45 lakh. The case positivity rate in the State was 31.14 % on January 14.