Fresh nomination for Bengal Panchayat polls on April 23: SEC

Kolkata, April 21: The West Bengal State Election Commission, after meeting with various political parties and representatives of the state government, selected April 23 as the extended day for filing nominations for the coming Panchayat polls, a senior official said on Saturday. The meeting was convened following a Calcutta High Court order to the SEC to make a fresh announcement extending the deadline for filing of nominations in consultation with the state government and other important stakeholders and finalise a new election schedule for the Panchayat polls. However, the BJP boycotted the meeting.

Earlier in day, representatives of various political parties met State Election Commissioner Amarendra Kumar Singh and discussed their demands for the Panchayat polling process. The BJP alleged that the state government is putting pressure on the SEC to conduct the entire polling in one day. It also boycotted the all-party meeting, accusing the SEC of not allowing more than two of their party members. The opposition BJP, CPI-M, Congress and PDS had moved the court, accusing the Trinamool of unleashing massive pre-poll violence against their party workers to prevent them from filing nominations for the polls ever since the process began on April 2. A single judge bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar on Friday quashed the SEC’s April 10 order that had cancelled the extension for filing nomination which the state poll panel announced on the night of April 9, directed it to issue a fresh deadline extending the time for filing nominations in consultation with the state government and important stakeholders. (IANS)

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