Kolkata: The office of the State Election Commissioner (SEC) in West Bengal, on Thursday, issued a notification stating that the polling for the formation of the new board of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be held on December 19.
The polls for the formation of the new board for Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) have been postponed for the time being since a resolution pertaining to the separation of areas under erstwhile Bally municipality from HMC is yet to get approval from the West Bengal Governor, Jagdeep Dhankar.
Later, the state election commissioner, Sourav Das told media persons that any re-polling if necessary will be conducted on December 20, 2021. “Since the nomination process starts from today, the model code of conduct will also be applicable from today. The polling will be conducted in electronic voting machines. The total number of voters in the 144 wards of KMC stands at around 40 lakhs. Polls will be conducted from 7 am to 5 pm on December 19, 2021,” he said.
Das also said that a maximum of two persons will be allowed with the candidate while filing the nomination. “The campaign processes will be as per the COVID-19 protocols and permissions will not be given for big gatherings,” he added.
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The matter to recall the elections for municipalities and municipal corporations is pending at the Calcutta High Court. The next hearing on this matter will be on November 29, 2021. So uncertainties are still there in conducting the polls for KMC. However, the state government had a series of discussions with legal luminaries over the issue.
State government sources said that since the Calcutta High Court has not given any specific instruction that notification cannot be issued till the matter is concluded in the court of law, so the state government decided to go for the polls for the new KMC board. Soon after the notification was issued by SEC, the state unit of BJP which has filed a petition in the matter at the Calcutta High Court, has sought the attention of the court in this matter.
