The State Election Commission has given its nod to the state government’s proposal to hold polls to the Calcutta and Howrah Municipal Corporations on December 19.

A letter of consent was sent to the state municipal affairs department on Tuesday, poll panel sources said. Votes will be counted on December 22.

Though the commission has not yet formally notified the polls, sources said it had convened a meeting of election officials and police personnel of Calcutta and Howrah on November 12.

Elections to about 200 civic bodies, including seven municipal corporations, are pending for several years.

Ahead of the civic polls, the state government has decided to separate the Bally municipality from the Howrah Municipal Corporation, reversing a decision it took about six years ago. A decision regarding this was taken at a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

In July 2015, Bally municipality was merged into the Howrah Corporation following delimitation that brought down the number of wards in erstwhile municipality from 35 to 16.

Sources in Trinamul said the party believed the merger didn’t go down well with Bally voters, and in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls Trinamul lost in seven of 16 wards. On Friday, a bill will be brought in the state legislative Assembly to separate Bally from Howrah Corporation, a minister said.

“Bally’s 16 wards will go to polls later. On December 19, only the 50 wards of Howrah Corporation will go to polls,” this minister said.

The BJP moved court with a demand to hold all pending civic polls at the same time. BJP vicepresident Pratap Banerjee met lawyers at Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.

“We have a onepoint agen¬da. All pending civic bodies must go to polls together. Otherwise, Trinamul will shed blood in the name of polls to wrest power in as many civic bodies as possible,” Banerjee said. “Electoral roll revision is currently on. If the polls are held in February new voters can also vote,” he added.

High court sources said the BJP had appealed to the court to be included as a party to a PIL, which has been filed, de¬manding simultaneous polls in all civic bodies. The case will be heard on November 17.

The BJP has also demanded central security forces for the civic polls.

On Tuesday evening, party leaders including state unit chief and MP Sukanta Majumdar, leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, national vicepresident and MP Dilip Ghosh and state unit’s general secretary (organisation) met with the leaders of Howrah and Calcutta in two meetings held at the state party headquarters.

The CPM and Congress have also spoken on similar lines. CPM Leader Shamik Lahiri said that his party had been demanding civic polls for a long time. “Why only two? Polls have to be held in all civic bodies and it has to be ensured that voters can cast their votes,” Lahiri said.

State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wondered whether the civic polls would be a repeat of the 2018 panchayat polls where the Trinamul Congress had been accused of preventing Opposition candidates from filing nominations. Opposition parties had also accused the Trinamul of “vote loot”. Adhir hoped the exercise would not end in a farce this time too.