Why EC so interested in holding municipal polls, asks minister

With the State Election Commissioner Mira Pandey writing to the state government for holding municipal elections, a West Bengal minister today sought to know why the EC was so 'interested' in holding it.
"This is the first time I am seeing that the election commission is so interested in conducting the elections. We are with the people throughout the year. We know their good and bad," Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim told reporters here.
The 17 municipalities were scheduled to go to the polls by the end of this month.
"Out of these 17, most of the municipalities have been made into municipal corporations. So now if we hold polls for municipalities then after some days you have to conduct polls for corporations, Who will pay the huge amount of money needed?" he asked.

Stating that polls were usually conducted by help of government officials, he said that it would be really inhuman if you send officials again on election duty as they have just come back after two-and-a-half months of the election process.
"And due to the Lok Sabha elections, development in these municipalities was halted due to the model code of conduct for the polls," Hakim said.