WB panchayat poll uncertainty a TMC govt conspiracy: Deepa

Says everyone is aware of the political conspiracy that the ruling TMC has hatched by taking on the SEC and creating a constitutional crisis

The Congress on Monday said its one-time ally Trinamool Congress was "plotting" to defer the panchayat election in West Bengal by entering into a legal battle with the State Election Commission and thus creating constitutional complications.

"Everyone is aware of the political conspiracy that the ruling Trinamool Congress has hatched by taking on the SEC and creating a constitutional crisis," Congress leader and Union Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Dasmunshi said.

Speaking at a party rally here, Dasmunshi criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "unnecessarily opposing the SEC's proposal for deployment of central para-military forces to man the panchayat poll and unilaterally announcing poll dates without consulting the poll panel".

This indicated a pre-planned move to push the local election in a state of uncertainty, she alleged. "It is now quite clear that the chief minister herself gave her telephone numbers to the BDOs at a conference in the city recently with the purpose of taking them into confidence on the indefinite deferment of the poll and appointment of administrators by the state government to run the three-tier rural bodies," she claimed.

The Congress leader also expressed shock at the death of SFI leader Sudipta Gupta, saying "it is distressing that the incident did not move the chief minister that day when she was busy at Yuva Bharati Krirangan (IPL inauguration)".