The all-party meeting called by the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday ahead of the panchayat elections failed to allay complaints from opposition leaders as violence continued to mar the nomination process for the July 8 elections. The application submission process began on July 9 and the last day to submit papers is July 15.
The meeting, which was called by state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha, was held at the election panel office in Kolkata and lasted for around an hour, authorities said.
BJP Leader Samik Bhattacharya said: “As of Tuesday, in at least 50 blocks, no opposition candidate was able to submit a nomination. In addition, the commission did not assure opposition leaders that it will provide us with all possible protection. We have no confidence in the SEC.”
Congress leader Ashutosh Chatterjee alleged that a bomb was recovered from a TMC leader’s car inside the nomination center premises. “A farce is being attempted in the name of elections,” he added.
During the meeting, CPI(M) leader Shamik Lahiri questioned the deadline for submitting nominations set by the election panel.
“There are 73,887 seats. On average, 10 candidates per seat want to submit nominations. That is a total of more than 7 lakh nominations. The time to submit nominations every day is only eight hours and there are only two days left.”
Meanwhile, the TMC hit back at the Opposition.
“The opposition is deliberately provoking violence in the state and trying to smear the government by creating chaos. We want free and peaceful elections,” Biswas said.
— With PTI inputs
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