TMC ready for civic polls, says Mayor

Kolkata: In a scathing attack without naming BJP for approaching the State Election Commission to delay the municipal polls, senior Trinamool Congress leader Firhad Hakim said: "One always wants to delay an examination if in apprehension that they may not pass in it."

In the same breath, he maintained that Trinamool Congress is ready to face the elections whenever it takes place. "We work round the year. So we don't need to worry ahead of the examination (election). One who has apprehension that they may fail will always want the examination to get delayed," he said.

When asked that BJP has approached the State Election Commission to ensure that they get ample time to campaign before the polls, he said: "I don't know when the municipal polls are going to take place. How could BJP come to know the dates?"

Hakim also took a dig at Ashok Bhattacharya, Mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, as the latter claimed that its too late to call the review meeting on Mission Nirmal Bangla and Vector Borne Disease Control Programme organised by the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department that was held today with only a couple of months left for the municipal polls.

Hakim, who is also the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister, said: "Ashok Babu and his party wakes up only during the elections. But we keep working round the year."

When asked whether they want the election to be in ballot or EVMs, he said that it is a matter that has to be decided by the SEC. "But on behalf of the party of course we stand on what our leader Mamata Banerjee has said," Hakim added. Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had demanded elections in ballots while addressing the 21 July rally.