Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Monday that he would seek an “update” from state election commissioner Saurabh Das on February 27 on “upcoming Municipal Elections”.

“Will seek an update as regards upcoming Municipal Elections from the State Election Commissioner Saurabh Kumar Das on Feb 27. The Commission is a constitutional body for superintendence, direction and control of Municipal Elections under article 243K of the Constitution of India,” Dhankhar tweeted on Monday morning.

Later, a release from Raj Bhavan said: “The emphasis of the Governor Shri Dhankhar is that election should be held in free and fair manner and all candidates and political parties must have level playing field. Governor called upon the people to abjure violence and take part in the election process without fail. He underlined the importance of election in democracy.”

The tweet and the statement from Raj Bhavan came as a surprise for the ruling establishment which described the governor seeking update from the state election commissioner as “unprecedented”.

“So far, state election commissioners had met governors during the course of local body polls to seek advice. But no governor had asked the state poll panel to give an update even before the election dates are announced,” said a senior government official.

In 2013, then state election commissioner Mira Pande had met governor M.K. Narayanan on several occasions and sought his intervention after the Mamata Banerjee dispensation had refused to deploy central forces for conducting “free and fair” panchayat polls.

“It is strange that the governor called the election commissioner even before the poll dates were announced,” said a state government official.

Sources in Raj Bhavan, however, said the governor wanted to ensure trouble-free civic polls and that’s why he wanted to know whether all precautions were being taken to avoid problems like those occurred during the last panchayat elections.

Trinamul insiders said they were keeping a sharp watch on the development and noted that the election commission was yet to convene an all-party meeting on the polls.

“It appears the Raj Bhavan wanted to put pressure on the state poll panel. We are keeping a close watch on the development and would take required steps if the poll panel is directed to do anything unwanted like seeking central forces for civic elections,” said a minister.

Sources in the poll panel said nothing was finalised in terms of holding elections to 102 civic bodies.

“Only a meeting was held with the district authorities of South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas and Howrah to know how prepared they are to hold polls The state government was yet to inform us when it would like to hold the polls. We will brief the governor whatever happened so far,” said the source.