Civic Polls: Counting of votes of 108 municipalities on March 2

KOLKATA: The state Election Commission (SEC) announced on Wednesday that the counting of votes for the civic polls in 108 municipalities across the state would be held on March 2.

The polls in these urban local bodies are scheduled to be held on February 27. Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday has asked the state whether it would be possible to hold the elections through deployment of Central Forces.

The High Court has also sought an affidavit from the state government, seeking its opinion whether Duare Sarkar camps could be stopped temporarily under the jurisdictional area of 108 poll-bound municipalities. The matter will be heard again on Monday.

The SEC has asked the returning officers of all the poll-bound civic bodies to arrange strong room facilities under their jurisdictional area. Counting will be held in a centralised place in the respective municipality areas. According to the draft list, there would be 10,813 polling booths spread across 4851 polling premises. The total number of voters is 95.59 lakh.

The nomination filing and withdrawal process is already over with February 12 being the last date for withdrawal of nominations.