Civic elections: Campaigning between 7 pm & 10 am not allowed, SEC tells all parties
Kolkata: The state Election Commission (SEC) on Monday informed the political parties that no meetings and campaigns in connection with the ensuing municipal elections in Kolkata and Howrah will be allowed from 7 pm till 10 am as part of Covid protocols. The Commission is likely to announce the dates soon, indicated sources after an all party meeting was held by state Election Commissioner Sourav Das.
The Commission will not allow any vote campaign within 72 hours of the elections. The timing of the election will be from 7 am to 5 pm.
According to sources, the Opposition political parties raised questions regarding reservation in connection with Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) as Bally Municipality has recently been bifurcated. The number of wards in HMC has come down to 50 as 14 wards within the Bally Municipality will not come under the ambit of the elections.
"We are in communication with the state government regarding reservation and decision will be taken accordingly," a senior official of SEC said. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has called the state Election Commissioner for a meeting at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday regarding the civic polls. In an affidavit submitted before the Calcutta High Court on Monday, the SEC has claimed that 85 per cent of the residents in Kolkata have received double vaccine doses followed by HMC where 55 per cent have got both the jabs. So to start with the Commission wants to hold polls in the two civic bodies and will gradually do so for all municipalities where elections are pending. The High Court will be hearing the matter on Wednesday in connection with a PIL filed demanding elections in all municipalities at one go rather than singling out KMC and HMC
The BJP, Left Front and Congress all have demanded that elections to all civic bodies should be held at a time.
The Commission informed the political parties about preparations for the civic polls which includes voter list, EVM, polling station and model code of conduct (MCC) which will be effective soon after the announcement of poll dates or notification for elections, whichever is earlier.
