Seven civic bodies in Bengal to go to polls on June 14; results on June 16

KOLKATA: Bengal will experience yet another round of electoral battle among the key political parties as seven municipalities in the state will go to polls on June 14. The date for holding polls in these civic bodies was decided in a meeting of all political parties and the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) on Monday. The WBSEC announced the date following a order of the Calcutta High Court which asked the poll panel to conduct the elections in these municipalities as term of those civic bodies were over.

State poll panel chief SR Upadhaya told reporters after the all-party meeting that notification for holding the elections will be issued on May 20. Polls will be held on June 14 and results will be announced on June 16. The seven municipalities include Rajarhat-Gopalpur, Kulti, Asansol Municipal Corporation ( AMC), Bidhannagar Municipality, Jamuria municipality, Bally municipality and Ranigunj municipality.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has opposed holding of elections to these seven civic bodies, saying that the government was planning to merge some of them to form municipal corporations to provide better civic amenities to the people. The process of merger of a number of civic bodies is on and hence the government is unwilling to hold polls in these municipalities immediately.The government is also of the opinion that the merger process would be hampered in case polls were held immediately .

The state government on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court, challenging the Calcutta High Court's order for holding polls in June.

A senior Trinamool leader said that the Supreme Court had admitted the petition, but a date for hearing was not fixed yet.