Kolkata: The State Election Commission (SEC) is likely to announce the dates for the Panchayat elections on Thursday following a discussion with the state government.
A meeting of the State Election Commissioner with Sourav Das, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the state Panchayat department, is scheduled to be held on Thursday and the poll dates are likely to be announced after the meeting in which there will be detailed discussion on the number of phases in which the election would be held.
Other topics including matters related to the deployment of security personnel at polling stations would also come up during the discussion.
On Tuesday, Das went to Nabanna, the state Secretariat, where he had a detailed discussion with Chief Secretary Malay De which came after his meeting with the SEC on Tuesday. A meeting between Das and the State Election Commission officials was also supposed to be held on Wednesday which didn't take place for certain reasons and it is rescheduled for Thursday.
In Thursday's meeting, the final decision over the number of phases and dates of the Panchayat polls is expected to be finalised.
Sources said the SEC has urged the state government to send its suggestions in writing in connection with the number of phases and dates of the Panchayat polls. The SEC will go through the suggestions, following which there will be discussions with Das. The suggestions will include matters like in how many phases the state government wants the elections to take place and the specific dates.
At the same time, the report that the SEC had sought from the Director General of Police has been submitted. The Commission is also going through the report that is also being considered to be quite crucial in terms of finalising the number of phases. Moreover, the security arrangement at the polling stations is also depending on the report as elections would take place in around 58,000 seats and security personnel need to be deployed at all the booths. It may be mentioned that there are around 58,000 police personnel including 46,000 armed ones with the state.
Representatives of the Muslim community went to the SEC's office on Thursday and submitted letters stating that it would be better if the election is held before Ramadan. It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had repeatedly requested for elections to be held before Ramadan as no one wants polls during their festival.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) faced a setback on Thursday as the Calcutta High Court rejected its plea demanding e-filing of nominations through e-mails. The SEC informed the court that accepting nomination through WhatsApp took place under a particular situation but there is no legal provision for accepting the same through e-mails. However, the hearing in connection with the case of contempt of court will take place in June.