Opposition move Calcutta High Court seeking deployment of Central forces in panchayat polls

The state units of Congress and the BJP on Friday moved the Calcutta High Court seeking deployment of central forces and more time for filing nominations for the West Bengal panchayat elections, the schedule of which has been announced by the state election commission.

The prayers were mentioned before a division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, seeking an urgent hearing of the matters.

The court asked them to file the petitions and come before it after 12 noon.

The Congress party's state chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's lawyers prayed before the court that the West Bengal State Election Commission be directed to deploy central forces during the election process to ensure peace and free and fair polling, claiming that violence and intimidation were seen during the 2018 panchayat polls in the state.

Claiming that only six days were given for filing of nominations for the huge three-tier local body election process, a BJP leader also moved the court praying that the time for filing nominations be extended.

His lawyer submitted that with elections to be held for around 75,000 seats, the time for filing nominations was very little.

According to the SEC's schedule, filing of nominations is to begin on Friday and will continue till June 15 and the elections will be held on July 8.