Civic polls in Kolkata & Howrah likely on Dec 19

Kolkata: The State Election Commission (SEC) is likely to conduct the pending civic polls in Kolkata and Howrah on December 19.

The counting for the elections in these two civic bodies is likely to be held on December 22. The pending elections in the remaining 110 civic bodies and two newly set up municipalities—Maynaguri and Falakata—are likely to be held in two to three phases in the months of January and February in 2022.

Officers of the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department held a meeting with the top brass of SEC on Tuesday in connection with the civic polls.

Though it is yet to get finalised, there is a high possibility of the civic polls in Kolkata and Howrah to be held first and the pending elections for the remaining of the 112 civic bodies including Bidhannagar would be held later.

If the election in the two civic bodies gets conducted on December 19, then the notification for the polls would be issued in the next week itself, that is after Bhaiphonta.

The elections in the remaining civic bodies in south and north Bengal would be held in two to three phases in the next year keeping in mind the prevailing Covid situation.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier hinted that the pending election of the civic bodies would be held after the bypolls in Khardah, Santipur, Gosaba and Dinhata.

Interestingly, the meeting to conduct the pending civic polls was held on the day when the result of the bypolls in the four Assembly segments was announced. Trinamool Congress had a landslide victory in all the four constituencies.

It needs a mention that there would be an expense of around Rs 185 crores to conduct elections in 114 civic bodies.

"The date of the election get finailised following discussion between the SEC and the state government. Today a meeting has held and it is the beginning of the process to finalise the date of the civic polls"., said an official.

There are 144 wards in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation while there are 44 and 66 wards in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and Howrah Municipal Corporation.

The last civic polls in Kolkata and Bidhannagar were held in 2015 and the tenure of the boards had expired in the year 2020.

Similarly, the last civic polls of the HMC were held in 2013 and the tenure of the then board had expired on December 10 in 2020.