Bengal panchayat polls likely by March-end next year

Kolkata, Oct 18 Three-tier panchayat polls in West Bengal are likely to be conducted either by the end of March or the beginning of April in 2024, informed the officials of the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) on Tuesday. Accordingly, a draft voters list for 20 out of 23 existing districts in the state will be released on Wednesday.

"The official notification for the three-tier panchayat polls will most probably be issued in January next year and in all probability the polls might be some time by the end of March or beginning of April," said a WBSEC official who refused to be named.

Informing that the draft voters' list for 20 districts will be released on Wednesday, the official further said that if the political parties have any objections to the same, they would be able to register their complaints on this count to the Commission by November 2 this year.

At the same time, he said that WBSEC is not in favour of deployment of Central armed forces for the rural civic body polls and instead wants the state police forces to manage law & order on the polling and counting days.

The principal opposition parties in the state like BJP, Left Front and Congress have already become vocal over deployment of Central armed forces in the panchayat polls in lines of the Lok Sabha or assembly polls.

Besides the state panchayat polls, elections for the Howrah Municipal Corporation will also be conducted sometime next year only.

Now, opposition parties have questioned the justification of holding the panchayat polls during that time, since that coincides with the timing of secondary board examination conducted by West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and higher secondary broad examinations conducted by West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Examination.

The opposition parties have also criticised the WBSEC's preference for giving the state police forces the charge of the security arrangements in the panchayat polls.

"WBSEC, though an autonomous body, works only under the instructions of the state government. The state's ruling party will prefer state police forces since through that they will be able to adopt election malpractices in a rampant manner on the polling and counting days," said BJP's national vice-president and party MP, Dilip Ghosh.

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