Ready to hold KMC elections after mid-March: Bengal govt tells State EC

Kolkata: The Bengal government has written to the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday informing that they are in a position to conduct the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections after the middle of March next year. However, it is still undecided about conducting polls in the other municipalities and Corporations in the state where the election is due.

Sources in the state EC confirmed the receipt of the letter from the state government on Tuesday. The state is slated to inform the Supreme Court on Thursday about its stand on conducting polls in KMC as well as other urban local bodies where elections are pending.

"The voter list publication is due on January 15, 2021. After this, the State Election Commission needs to adopt this list to make it fit for holding municipal elections. The entire process takes approximately a month. Following this, it requires another four to six weeks to hold the polls. So, the state will be in a position to hold elections after mid-March," an official in the state EC said.

However, the Commission officials are doubtful of holding elections during March too as the possibility of holding polls in April is not being ruled out.

"The Assembly polls will always get a preference and in that case, the court might ask to prepone the election. We will inform the court about the state's version on Thursday and wait for the Apex Court's direction," the official added.

Polls are pending in 110 ULBs spanned across 22,000 booths and amidst the Covid pandemic situation the arrangement for holding elections needs huge security and logistic arrangements. The financial involvement is also massive and the State Election Commission has already asked for Rs 185 crore for conducting the polls which is more than double so far as the last municipal polls are concerned.