WB Election Commissioner acted at TMC's behest: CPM tells HC

The CPI(M) today claimed before the Calcutta High Court that the State Election Commissioner had acted as a "stooge of the Trinamool Congress" by withdrawing the notification on extending the date for filing of nominations for panchayat election in West Bengal.

The CPI(M)'s legal affairs in-charge Bikash Bhattacharya submitted before Justice Subrata Talukdar that the party had sought State Election Commissioner Amarendra Kumar Singh's removal from the post in its petition, claiming that he had betrayed the faith reposed in him by the Constitution.

Justice Talukdar extended the stay on the panchayat election process till tomorrow, when the matter would be heard again.

Bhattacharya submitted that the commissioner had recalled his order extending the date of nomination on the dictation of the Trinamool Congress and the Government of West Bengal and had acted as a "stooge" of the ruling party in the state in doing so.

"As such, the withdrawal of the notification extending the date by a day is illegal and stands to be nullified and the election postponed," Bhattacharya, a former mayor of Kolkata, said.

He said that the urgency to hold the panchayat polls as expressed by the State Election Commission and TMC before the court had been proved to be void as the tenure of the present panchayat in the state would end in August.

He submitted that the apex court entertained the BJP's petition on April 9 and relied on the SEC to allay grievances of intending candidates for the local body polls.

"The apex court did not pass any order, but expressed confidence in the SEC in ensuring a level playing field for all parties," he said.

The panchayat elections in West Bengal were to be held in three phases from May 1 to May 5 and the counting of votes was scheduled on May 8.

Bhattacharya said that this itself reflected the "maintainability" of the BJP's petition before the high court, which had been challenged by the commission and the TMC.

He submitted that the notification of April 9 extending the date of nomination was an independent consideration of the one-man commission in light of the Supreme Court order.

Bhattacharya said that the SEC chose to withdraw the notification the very next day referring to objections by a special secretary of the West Bengal government and a TMC leader.

Submitting that the TMC, which has challenged a stay granted by the court on the panchayat polls, is not an aggrieved party, Bhattacharya claimed that the commissioner's decision to revoke the extension order on the basis of the objection by TMC was illegal.

He further asked as to how a government official could question a constitutional body's decision and on what authority.

The nomination process for the panchayat polls ended on April 9, but had been extended by a day by the SEC the same evening following the apex court order.

The notification, which referred to the apex court order, was withdrawn by the SEC on April 10 morning.

The BJP moved the high court challenging the withdrawal and Justice Talukdar stayed the election process on April 12.

Apart from the BJP, the CPI(M), PDS and the Congress too have moved the high court separately challenging the SEC's decision.

Trinamool Congress vice-president Kalyan Banerjee, who is representing the party in the court, earlier submitted that newspaper reports cannot be relied on and claimed that there are only allegations of violence and molestation which have not been substantiated with evidence.

Concluding his argument, Banerjee submitted that there have only been five or six police complaints across the state and such a huge election process cannot be stalled on the basis of allegations of a few incidents of violence.