West Bengal government led by Mamata Banerjee and State Election Commission (SEC) jointly moved to Supreme Court seeking reversal of Calcutta High Court’s order to deploy central forces for conduct of Panchayat elections. The decision was made after senior SEC officials and government met with state legal advisors. On Thursday, Calcutta High Court had ordered SEC to deploy central forces for Panchayat Elections within 48 hours. The order was issued over issue of violence in certain districts of state during the last day of nomination filings for the elections. The court observed that no necessary steps were taken since the passing of order on June 13.
HC at odds with government and SEC
While issuing the order of forces deployment the court observed, “It is not clear as to why the State Election Commission and the State of West Bengal are averse to the deployment of central forces. Such deployment has yielded necessary results in the past.” Many cases of violence were reported in South Parganas and Birhum district on last day of filing nominations. Bhangar area saw Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Indian Secular Front (ISF) workers clash as bombs were hurled, while Police responded by throwing tear gas shells. Suvendu Adhikari from BJP and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had approached Calcutta High court to request the deployment of central forces to ensure peaceful conduct of elections. Their petition was based on instances of violence during the municipal elections in 2022 and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections in 2021.
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Mamata blames the opposition
On Wednesday, BJP workers barged into the SEC office with candidates who could not file their nomination papers as a consequence of political violence that ensued. TMC has alleged that BJP is attempting to divert attention from its failure to field candidates for the polls. CM Mamata Banerjee held opposition responsible for violence, stating “Opposition parties are trying to create disturbances by orchestrating violence while filing nominations. They are doing it to tarnish the state’s image.” The three tier Panchayat elections across zilla parishads, panchayat samitis, and gram panchayats will see competition for nearly 74000 seats in an electorate base of 5.67 crores.
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