The BJP has moved Calcutta High Court seeking a direction to the State Election Commission to postpone the polls to 108 municipalities scheduled for February 27.
The party also demanded that the panel be asked to count the votes of all civic bodies — including four municipal corporations which go to the polls on February 12 — together.
“We have three specific demands. First, the polls on February 27 must be postponed. Second, all votes must be counted together. Lastly, any voter of a particular ward can sit as a poll agent in any of the booths in that ward,” said BJP leader Sisir Bajoria.
In all likelihood, the matter would be heard on Monday.
Sources in the party said the petition had been filed early on February 4, before the poll panel issued the notification for the elections to 108 municipalities.
“The commission can argue that since the notification has been issued, the court can’t hear a petition related to the polls. That is why we had filed the petition before the notification was issued so that we have a counter-argument,” this source said.
The Left Front, which had raised similar issues with the commission at the all-party meeting, has rejected the possibility of moving the court. Senior Left leaders said it had been proven time and again that the court didn’t intervene in the poll process once the notification was issued. “We will do everything in our political capacity to get our demands accepted by the commissioner. But we will not move the court because it is pointless,” said CPM veteran Rabin Deb.
He, however, added that some of their demands, such as reduction in the silence period by a day from 72 hours to 48 hours and increase in the campaign period, had been accepted by the poll panel.
Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen said the BJP had no idea what it was doing. “Earlier, they were demanding that the polls be held. Now, they are trying to delay the polls. Actually, they are aware that whenever the polls are held, they would face a debacle, which would in turn expedite their inner feud,” said Sen.
