West Bengal election commission fails to declare panchayat poll date

The State Election Commission (SEC) failed to announce the dates for the three-tier Panchayat elections in West Bengal on Tuesday. Sources said that the state government and the SEC could not come to a consensus as far as the dates or phases were concerned.

Partha Chatterjee, state parliamentary affairs minister and senior TMC leader, had said that the state wanted the poll process to be completed ahead of the month of Ramadan even if it meant carrying out the polling process in one phase.

SEC sources said that the commission wanted the polls to be conducted in at least two phases against the earlier schedule of conducting it in three phases.

Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Saurav Das, met the SEC on Tuesday for about an hour before holding a meeting with the top brass of the state government in Nabanna.

SEC sources said that it would announce the dates of poll after receiving a copy of the High Court's order on Tuesday and holding a meeting with all stakeholders about the security arrangements for the Panchayat election.

Meanwhile, the state Congress president, Adhir Chowdhury met the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi apprising him about the atrocities of TMC on Congress workers. Party MP Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury and MLA Manoj Chakraborty were allegedly attacked on Monday by TMC workers. He said that he had updated the party high command of the situation in Bengal. "The situation in Bengal is such that only a President's rule can save democracy here. I have also written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about it," he said.