Bengal Panchayat Polls: All-Party Meeting On Tuesday After Clashes

The ruling Trinamool Congress welcomed the move of the SEC.

KOLKATA: West Bengal's State Election Commission (SEC) will hold a meeting on Tuesday to hear demands and grievances of all political parties on the July 8 panchayat elections and discuss the law and order situation, a senior official of the poll body said. The meeting will be chaired by SEC Rajiva Sinha.

"All parties have been invited to the meeting. There will be discussions on the law and order situation. We will also listen to their grievances and suggestions," the official said. The BJP asserted that the all-party meeting would bear no fruit, while the CPI(M) questioned the "purpose" of calling it when there are only two days left for filing nominations.

West Bengal has been witnessing a series of clashes and ransacking of party offices. Opposition parties alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress workers were not allowing their candidates to file nominations. "The all-party meeting is called before the dates of the election are decided. The SEC will have to face tough questions as the Commission is not prepared to hold the elections. Mr Sinha has become the SEC to spoil the entire poll process," senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty told PTI.

The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, welcomed the move of the SEC. "I do not see there is any problem. As they (opposition parties) are seeing defeat in the election, they are giving these lame excuses. They do not have candidates to fight the election," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told PTI. The SEC has directed all district magistrates and superintendents of police to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC within a one-kilometre radius of all nomination centres.