The ruling TMC on Tuesday said it is ready for the coming panchayat poll in West Bengal, even as the opposition BJP asserted that free and fair election is impossible in the state without the deployment of central forces. The Congress echoed BJP on the central forces. TMC has ruled out the demand for central forces as “irrational”.
“The Trinamool Congress is ready for the panchayat poll in the state. The opposition will see the support it enjoys despite the canards against the government. We will win the rural poll with a massive majority,” senior TMC leader Sougata Roy said.
Senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha too said the party is ready for the poll but expressed doubts about the fairness of polls if it is held under the state police.
“We are ready for rural polls. BJP will win the majority of the seats if the poll is free and fair. But the elections need to be held under central forces to ensure that the polls are free and fair,” he said.
Echoing him, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “Central forces are a must to ensure free and fair polls in the state”.
Chowdhury, who is the leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, said “If the State Election Commission doesn’t seek central forces then we will move court seeking central forces,” he said.
Terming the demand for deployment of central forces as “irrational”, Roy said “It is not done in any state during the rural poll. So why will there be an exception for Bengal? The demand is unrealistic and irrational”.
The central forces had manned each booth during the 2013 three tier panchayat election and the TMC, which was then two years into power in the state after ousting the Left Front, had won more than 80 per cent of the seats.
In the next panchayat poll in 2018 TMC had won 90 per cent of the panchayat seats in the state and in all the 20 zilla parishads. The election was, however, marred by violence and malpractices and the opposition had then alleged that it was not allowed to file nominations in several seats across the state.
Meanwhile, the State Election Commission Tuesday dubbed media reports that the dates of rural poll had been set for March-April as “baseless”.
“There is no truth in this report. The election is due to be held in May in the normal course. Nothing has been decided so far,” a senior SEC official said.
The SEC will come out with a draft report of the delimitation of panchayat seats in the state on Wednesday. There are 825 seats spread across 20 zilla parishads, 9217 in panchayat samities, and 48649 in gram panchayats. The panchayat poll will be the last major litmus test for all political parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha poll in the state.
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