West Bengal braces up for four municipal corporation polls on January 22

The polling for four municipal corporations in West Bengal, namely Asansol, Siliguri, Chandannagar and Bidhannagar, will be conducted on January 22, with the counting of votes and declaration of results to be held on January 25.

Kolkata:The polling for four municipal corporations in West Bengal, namely Asansol, Siliguri, Chandannagar and Bidhannagar, will be conducted on January 22, with the counting of votes and declaration of results to be held on January 25.

However, polling for the fifth municipal corporation of Howrah is still uncertain following legal complications. The state election commissioner, Sourav Das told media persons that since the state government has not intimated the state election commission about the Howrah elections, hence no decision was made in this regard.

Sources said that the elections for the new board of Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has become uncertain since the Governor, Jagdeep Dhankar, has not given his consent for the bill to separate wards under erstwhile Bally municipality from Howrah Municipal Corporation.

Although the state government informed the Calcutta High Court that the governor had given his consent, Dhankar denied that and claimed that no revised bill was sent to him.

Speaking to the media persons, the state election commissioner said that CCTVs will be installed in all the polling stations. On being questioned whether central armed forces will be deployed or not, he said that no decision has been taken on this count as yet.

“We will have a review meeting on January 4 and only after that the decision on this count will be taken", Das said.

The model code of conduct will be applicable in the areas under these four municipalities from Monday.

The nomination filing process will start on December 28 and the last date of nomination will be January 3, 2021.

Earlier the all-party meeting called by the commission virtually failed as BJP decided to boycott the meeting and Left Front and Congress walked out of the meeting before it ended.

The opposition alleged that the state election commission was operating on behalf of the state government.

The Trinamool Congress representatives present in the meeting rubbished their allegations. They claimed that it was the opposition parties who wanted the elections to be held on the same day but now objecting to it out of fear of defeat.