Calcutta High Court rejects BJP's plea to stay KMC polls

The Calcutta High Court at the same time ordered the state government to ensure early completion of the polls for remaining municipal corporations and municipalities in the state in a phased manner. The next hearing of this case is on December 23, 2021.

Kolkata:The CalcuttaHigh Court on Wednesday, refused to stay the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) polls on December 19, 2021, and rejected BJP’s plea on this count.

The Calcutta High Court at the same time ordered the state government to ensure early completion of the polls for remaining municipal corporations and municipalities in the state in a phased manner. The next hearing of this case is on December 23, 2021.

A number of petitions have already been filed in the Calcutta High Court related to these civic body polls. The first petition was filed by the Howrah district committee of CPI(M). They filed the petition demanding quick completion of polls for all the urban civic bodies in the state.

Thereafter, one individual, Mousumi Roy filed public interest litigation on this count. Thereafter, BJP’s state vice president, Pratap Bandopadhyay filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court just a few days before the dates for KMC polls were announced. His demand was that the polls for all the civic bodies in the state should be conducted on the same day and the results of all these bodies should be declared on a single day. He also appealed for an interim stay on the KMC polls.

Earlier, the division bench of the Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice, Prakash Srivastava sought a reply from the state government and the state election commission on their plans to conduct polls for the remaining civic bodies. The state election commission expressed its inability to immediately update the court on when the polls for the remaining municipalities will be conducted and in how many phases.

However, the state government informed the court that they are willing to complete the polls for all the municipalities by May 2022 depending on the COVID-19 situation in the state. While the opposition parties of the state strongly objected to this argument from the state government and the state election commission. The opposition parties expressed doubts over state government’s intention to conduct the polls in the other urban civic bodies of the state.

BJP demanded the use of VVPAT machines in the KMC polls. However, the state election commission has however rejected that plea.