HC asks SEC to submit affidavit whether it can conduct municipal polls

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to file an affidavit and clarify it's stand whether it will conduct municipal corporation elections in Asansol, Bidhannagar, Siliguri and Chandannagar on January 22 or not in view of the sharp rise in Covid cases. The affidavit should be filed on Monday.

The PIL was filed by Bimal Bhattacharya, a resident of Howrah. The plea pointed out that if elections are held in such an atmosphere, then the possibility of an increase in infection would be evident as it will be impossible to follow the state guidelines allowing only 500 people to attend public meetings. As a result, if the number of victims increases, the medical system will eventually collapse.

Earlier, the SEC had informed the court that it is ready to hold polls in the remaining municipal corporations.

While the SEC had announced that voting in four municipal corporations — Siliguri, Chandernagore, Bidhannagar and Asansol will be held on January 22, it left out Howrah Municipal Corporation, reasoning that it has received no communication regarding the polls from the state government yet.

The nomination filing for the January 22 polls commenced on December 28 and the last date for submitting nominations was January 3, 2022. The date for scrutiny of nomination was on January 4 while January 6 was fixed as the last date for nomination withdrawal.

"The next hearing is on January 11, 2022," said Bikram Banerjee, advocate at Calcutta High Court.