Dates for 4 civic bodies’ polls in Bengal announced, Howrah left out

Kolkata : Amidst the ongoing controversy regarding the Howrah Municipal Corporation, the state election commission announced the poll dates of four other municipal corporations in the state. The commission left out Howrah amid the ongoing row between the state government and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar over a bill seeking its bifurcation.

The West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday announced that polls to four municipal corporations — Siliguri, Chandannagar, Bidhannagar, Asansol — will be held on January 22.

State Election Commissioner Saurav Das said that filing of nominations for the January 22 polls will commence on December 28.

“The last date for submitting nomination is January 3. The papers will be scrutinised the day after. January 6 has been fixed as the last date for withdrawing the nominations,” Das told reporters.

Of the four, Asansol is the largest municipal corporation with 106 seats, followed by Siliguri with 47, Chandannagar with 33 and Bidhannagar with 41 wards, he said.

Repolling, if any, will be conducted on January 24, the SEC said.

Counting of votes will take place on January 25.

“The commission has adopted electoral rolls updated up to November 1, 2021,” Das said.

He added that the model code of conduct will be applicable in the poll-bound areas from Monday.

However, the commission left out the Howrah Municipal Corporation because of the controversy. The controversy erupted after the Governor refused to sign the Howrah Municipal Corporation Amendment Bill passed by the Assembly.

The amendment bill was meant to bifurcate Howrah Municipal Corporation taking away 16 wards from the corporation and form Bally Municipality. The governor asked for more inputs from the state government before signing the bill.

The controversy deepened after the Governor refuted the submission made by the Advocate General that that Raj Bhavan cleared the bill. Responding immediately after that the governor embarrassed the government saying that he has yet to sign the Howrah Municipal Corporation Bill and it is under consideration as inputs from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are awaited.

The state government wanted to conduct the HMC election along with the election to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation but that couldn’t be done because of the problem. Now the election of HMC is in jeopardy.