Central Forces For Panchayat Polls: Bengal Govt, Poll Body Move Supreme Court

Kolkata: The West Bengal government and State Election Commission (SEC) jointly moved the Supreme Court on Saturday, challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order directing deployment of central forces during Panchayat polls in the state.

After multiple incidents of violence, bombing and firing during filing of nominations, resulting in five deaths, a division bench of the High Court on Thursday directed the SEC to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the conduct of Panchayat elections within 48 hours.

The division bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, noted that no appreciable steps had been taken by SEC and state government since its previous order passed on June 13.

Leaders of Opposition parties BJP and Congress had approached the high court asking for deployment of central forces to ensure peaceful elections, citing instances of widespread violence during municipal elections in 2022 and Kolkata Municipal Corporation election in 2021.

BJP, Congress, and CPI (M) have accused the Mamata Banerjee-headed Trinamool Congress government of using police machinery to prevent Opposition candidates from submitting their nomination forms.

The three-tier Panchayat elections is scheduled to be held in West Bengal on July 8, to elect representatives for nearly 74,000 seats across zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.