Alapan Bandyopadhyay appointed interim Bengal poll panel chief

Kolkata: West Bengal transport secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay has been named interim state election commissioner after S R Upadhyay put in his papers allegedly succumbing under pressure from political parties following allegations of rampant violence and irregularities in the local body polls.

Bandyopadhyay, a senior Indian Administrative Service officer, is slated to take over on Wednesday, according to sources.

Bandyopadhyay was accompanying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her four-day trip to Bhutan when he asked to take over as SEC.

The state government forwarded Bandyopadhyaya's name to governor K N Tripathi, who approved of it and appointed the bureaucrat to the high post.

Earlier in the day, Upadhyay went to the Raj Bhawan and submitted his resignation.

His decision came a day after Upadhyay announced that the vote count for the three civic bodies - Municipal Corporations of Bidhannagar, Asansol and part of Howrah-Athat was on Sunday put on hold following mounting protests over allegations of violence and rampant malpractices, will be held on October 9.

The SEC on Sunday indefinitely postponed the vote count scheduled for Wednesday to look into the allegations of malpractices.

The SEC's decision on Monday announcing the new date of counting came barely hours after the ruling Trinamool Congress staged a demonstration at the panel's office demanding the counting be held as scheduled on Wednesday and threatened to intensify the stir if its demand was not met.

Led by party secretary general Partha Chatterjee, a host of Trinamool leaders staged a demonstration at the SEC office for hours.