KOLKATA: West Bengal panchayat election went back to Calcutta High Court on Friday with Opposition parties CPM and Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) filing a petition against conducting elections on a single day by espousing security concerns.
PDS leader Samir Putatundu said that the case will be heard on Monday. Opposition leaders had on Thursday expressed concerns over the State Election Commission’s decision to conduct elections on a single day on May 14 stating that inadequate security to each booth would ensure rampant rigging by ruling party cadres.
The state has about 58,000 state police forces to man about the same number of booths, meaning that it will manage to give just one police personnel every booth, which has been deemed severely inadequate by the Opposition given the violence witnessed throughout the state since the election process started from the beginning of this month.
Meanwhile, political parties will meet State Election Commissioner Amarendra Kumar Singh at 1 pm on Saturday to discuss the security concerns over conducting the election on a single day. All the political parties have been allowed to send two representatives for the meeting.
On the other hand, exam dates of several universities including Calcutta University, Jadavpur University and Rabindra Bharati University is likely to change due to clash with date of panchayat election on May 14.
Meanwhile, protesting against rising murders and rapes in the state, BJP Mahila Morcha led by its president Locket Chatterjee started a 30-hour sit-in at the busy Shyambazaar circle in north Kolkata from Friday afternoon onwards. The sit-in protest would continue till Saturday 6 pm.