SEC has no voice of its own : Opp

CPI-M Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya told reporters that the SEC's decision is testimony to the fact that the poll panel is incapable of taking independent decisions and always waited for instruction from the ruling party.


PTI | Kolkata | Updated: 15-01-2022 21:03 IST | Created: 15-01-2022 20:54 IST
SEC has no voice of its own : Opp
Representative image Image Credit: ANI
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The opposition BJP and CPI-M said the State Election Commission (SEC) should have postponed the elections to four municipal corporations by more than three weeks and the deferment of the election date by it proved that the state poll panel has no voice of its own and is dictated to by the ruling Trinamool Congress.

TMC national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who is behind the Diamond Harbour model to control the spread of COVID-19, thanked the High Court and the SEC for postponing the civic poll and called for bringing down the positivity rate within three per cent in three weeks.

The SEC on Saturday postponed the poll to the municipal corporations of Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Chandernagore and Asansol by three weeks to February 12 instead of holding it on January 22 as declared following a letter by the state government to it giving its consent to reschedule the election dates due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state. CPI-M Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya told reporters that the SEC's decision is testimony to the fact that the poll panel is incapable of taking independent decisions and always waited for instruction from the ruling party.

''The high court had recommended that the poll to the four municipal corporations be deferred by four to six weeks. But as we all learnt, the state government wanted it to be held after three weeks. The SEC proved it cannot take any decision independently. However, let's hope the COVID situation will not turn worse when the polls are held on February 12,'' Bhattacharya, an eminent lawyer, said.

BJP state spokesman Samik Bhattacharya said, ''The poll should have been held not before four-six weeks as we don't know what will be the COVID situation on February 12.'' Asked if he thought the date was arrived at as desired by Trinamool Congress, Bhattacharya said ''We don't think the SEC has any separate identity. It is dictated by the ruling party and its supremo (Mamata Banerjee).

Thanking the High Court and State Election Commission for postponing the polls by three weeks ''wholeheartedly'', Abhishek Banerjee tweeted ''Let us work UNITEDLY to ensure that the positivity rate in Bengal is brought down to less than three per cent in the next three weeks.'' ''The need of the hour is to strengthen the fight against #COVID !,'' said Banerjee, who had on January 8 favoured cancellation of all political programmes, big gatherings in the next two months, said.

On the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's birthday on January 12, he wrote on social media that more than 53,000 COVID tests were conducted in his Diamond Harbour parliamentary constituency while reporting a positivity rate of 2.31 per cent, which is in sharp contrast to the average regular testing figure of 65,000 to 70,000 across the state.

His Diamond Harbour model implies maximum numbers of tests on a single day, strict implementation of COVID safety protocols, banning all political, social and religious meetings till the end of February, a dedicated control room and WhatsApp number for every panchayat and municipality, isolation centres, doctors on call and doctor and health staff-on-wheels facility in the constituency.

Calcutta High Court had asked the SEC to explore the possibility of postponing the civic polls by four to six weeks in view of the surge in cases.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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