The State Election Commission on Monday informed Calcutta High Court through an affidavit that it would hold polls as planned to four municipal corporations on January 22 and all Covid-19 safety protocols of the Bengal government would be adhered to in the process.

A PIL had been filed before the division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, urging deferral of the civic polls amid the alarming rise of novel coronavirus cases in Bengal. While the case will be heard on Tuesday, the commission had been asked to clarify its stand through the affidavit by Monday.

In the affidavit, the poll panel also stated that multiple steps have been taken to check the spread of Covid-19 and ensure that the poll process doesn’t contribute towards worsening the outbreak.

The poll panel has banned all forms of in-person rallies and written to political parties to focus instead on virtual campaigns. It has also imposed the ceiling of 250 heads, on the number of people who can attend a meeting in a large and open space.

While the commission claims to have taken all necessary safety precautions, the Opposition parties of the state dismissed the argument.

CPM leader Shamik Lahiri said the commission had deferred the civic polls in 2020 because of the pandemic, when the total number of cases in the entire country was a few hundred.

“Why not now? The commission must immediately call for an all-party meeting and take everyone’s views on whether polls should be conducted amid such a crisis,” he said.

State BJP chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya claimed the poll panel has turned itself into a “department” of the state government and was no longer the autonomous body it was supposed to be. He said that the commission was in utter disregard of public health, heeding only the state government’s orders.

On Saturday, Trinamul Congress’s national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee had said that he “personally believes” that all political and religious events ought to be postponed for two months, in view of the Covid-19 situation.

This had prompted speculation over the possibility of a realignment by the ruling dispensation in the state, with regard to the civic polls and the Gangasagar Mela.

However, the state government’s activities in the high court on Monday, with regard to both the civic polls and the Mela, suggested otherwise.

Both Bhattacharya and Lahiri said this proved beyond reasonable doubt that Abhishek’s statement was nothing but just “posturing”.

Trinamul’s north Calcutta organisational district unit chief Tapas Roy, however, said that Abhishek’s suggestions were being “duly, diligently considered”. Several other Trinamul leaders on Monday, such as Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and Madan Mitra, publicly lauded the Diamond Harbour MP’s stand.