Nearly a week after Trinamul made a clean sweep in the Assembly by-polls, a public interest litigation has been filed in the Calcutta High Court questioning why the state government was delaying polls to the civic bodies, most of which are now being run by administrators as their terms have ended.

In some of the civic bodies like Howrah Municipal Corporation, Berhampore and Krishnagar municipalities, elections have been due since 2018. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation election should have been held in 2020 but got delayed because of the Covid pandemic.

Last Tuesday, hours after the bypoll results were declared, the state government wrote to the state election commission that it was keen on holding polls in the Calcutta and Howrah municipal corporations in December.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, counsel Sabyasachi Chatterjee questioned why the state had selected only two civic bodies for holding elections now and ignored the rest? On the instruction of the bench, copies of the petition have been sent to the state government and the state poll panel.

Amidst the raging pandemic, the civic bodies _ 118 municipalities and seven municipal coprporations _ are being run by state-appointed administrators.

In 2018, panchayat polls were held in Bengal amidst allegations of widespread electoral malpractices and coercive measures adopted by the ruling Trinamul. The Opposition has accused the ruling Trinamul of disallowing parties from filing nominations and preventing people from exercising their right to vote. The anger of 2018 was reflected in the Lok Sabha polls a year later, when BJP won 18 of the 42 seats.

“Didi felt it was not conducive to hold polls now and that the results could have gone against the party. As the Assembly elections were due in two years, her focus was on keeping her government in power,” said a Trinamul source.

After the Lok Sabha polls, several local boards, especially in the Lok Sabha constituencies where the BJP had won, changed hands as councillors defected to the saffron camp. Later, the councillors returned to the Trinamul leaving the BJP high and dry.

The Covid pandemic in 2020 helped Mamata push the civic polls further back.

The brute majority with which the Trinamul returned to power in the summer of 2021 and registered victories in seven other Assembly seats in subsequent by-polls, two of which were held by the BJP, has now given Mamata the impetus to go ahead with the civic polls.

Trinamul sources said Mamata was testing the waters with the civic polls. “She does not want to rush with the civic polls. We may have got a landslide majority in the Assembly, but it cannot be denied that there is anger at the grassroots level and civic polls are contested on local issues, where the party may not have control,” said a Trinamul source. “In case of any adverse results in either Calcutta or Howrah, which is unlikely, we can change our strategy in the remaining civic bodies.”

The Left and the Congress, without any seat in the Assembly this time, however, had formed boards in Siliguri Municipal Corporation and the Joynagar-Majilpur municipality respectively. Both parties have thrown hints at holding talks at the local level to decide on an alliance. At a meeting here on October 30, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had asked party leaders to assess their strengths in each of the civic boards in all districts and submit a report.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Sunday said that talks were held before the Assembly polls on alliances in 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the seats. Left Front partners will meet later in the week to decide on possible seat-sharing with the Congress.

The Calcutta High Court has fixed the next date of hearing on the civic polls on November 17.