West Bengal government has asked state election commission to advance the panchayat election in the state to next January instead of the scheduled time in May 2013.
In a letter to state election commission, West Bengal chief secretary Samar Ghosh has requested to hold the election by the end of January, 2013.
Gosh's letter came as a response to state election commission's communication to the government, in which it had stated that the elections could be held in Mid-April at the earliest as the panchyat election will be held according to new voter list based on age as on January 2013.
However, the state government has requested the election commission to postpone the work of updating the voter list, which was scheduled to be carried out between October 1, 2012 and January 15, 2013.
Earlier, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced in a public meeting that pachayat polls would take place earlier than the scheduled time.
The last panchayat elections were held on 11-18 May, 2008.