Bengal panchayat polls: BJP questions justification of all-party meet now

Bengal panchayat polls: BJP questions justification of all-party meet nowJune 13, 2023Kolkata, June 13 (IANS) As West Bengal State Election Commission has convened an all- party meeting on the forthcoming panchayat elections, BJP’s special observer for the state and the party’s IT- cell chief Amit Malviya has questioned the justification of convening the meeting after the polling dates are announced.On this point, Malviya has also described the state election commissioner as callous and subservient to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee.”WB Election Commission should have held an all-party meet before announcing dates of the Panchayat Polls, not after. It is unprecedented that poll to over 74,000+ seats were announced without any consultation, on instructions of the Chief Minister. Rajiva Sinha, with his actions, ought to instil at least some confidence in the people of Bengal, that he intends to and has the wherewithal to hold free and fair poll in the State. At the moment he is coming across as callous and completely subservient to Mamata Banerjee,” Malviya said in a Twitter message.In fact, since Sinha announced the poll dates last Thursday, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari had been vocal about the dates being announced without convening an all-party meeting.It was only after the Governor, C.V. Ananda Bose summoned Sinha on June 10 and sent a strong message as regards to violence over the nomination process; the state election commissioner announced the decision to convene the all-party meeting on Tuesday.Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress state spokesman in West Bengal Kunal Ghosh has claimed that nothing is binding on the state election commission to announce the poll dates after having discussions with all political parties.The polls for the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal are scheduled on July 8 and the counting is scheduled on July 11.–IANSsrc/dpb