The State Election Commission on Thursday issued a notification announcing polls to 108 municipalities in Bengal on February 27, which is a Sunday.

However, voting will not be held in ward 29 of South Dumdum municipality following an order from Calcutta High Court on Wednesday.

State election commissioner Sourav Das said on Thursday that the voting would take place between 7am and 5pm. Nominations will be received till February 9 and scrutinised the following day. The last date for the withdrawal of the nominations is February 12. Although counting date hasn’t yet been announced, the commission’s notification states that the poll process has to be concluded by March 8.

“We issued the (poll) notification today. The (high) court has allowed us to conduct polls in all wards at 108 civic bodies, except ward 29 of South Dumdum municipality. We received the order on Wednesday,” Das said at a press meet.

Asked what had prevented the commission from holding the polling in the particular ward, Das said the matter was sub judice and he wouldn’t comment on it.

The commission said the silence period for the campaign had been reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours, while the campaign timing rescheduled from 9am till 9pm.

The announcement of the polls sparked a political row with Opposition parties accusing chief minister Mamata Banerjee of holding an administrative review meeting in violation of the model code of conduct. The model code of conduct came into effect around 11am when the poll notification was issued.

A few hours after the schedule of the civic polls was announced, Mamata has chaired an administrative review meeting.

“State Election Commission has issued Notification for the Municipality Elections. Model Code of Conduct has come into force now. In such circumstances, how can CM hold Administrative meetings with SPs & DMs of the districts? It’s evident that @CEOWestBengal is influenced by TMC,” tweeted Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari.

Hitting back at Adhikari, Trinamul MLA Tapas Roy said: “He (Adhikari) has little knowledge of these things. This was an administrative meeting. Administrative work cannot be stopped because of polls.”

CPM’s leader Sujan Chakraborty also accused Mamata of violating the model code of conduct. “I condemn this act and protest against it.”

CPM announced the list of candidates for several civic bodies on Thursday.

The BJP has demanded that the February 27 polls be postponed for four weeks because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said the party was planning to move court demanding that the votes to all civic bodies be counted together. A similar demand has been raised by the Congress and the CPM as well.