All eyes on Monday when SEC meets

THE State Election Commission will meet on Monday to decide its future course of action in the wake of the Trinamool Congress completely rejecting its proposal of holding the panchayat elections in three phases in the state with the help of Central paramilitary forces.

THE State Election Commission will meet on Monday to decide its future course of action in the wake of the Trinamool Congress completely rejecting its proposal of holding the panchayat elections in three phases in the state with the help of Central paramilitary forces.

A day after the government went ahead and unilaterally notified two-phase poll for the three-tier panchayat system and that too with a skewed schedule 14 districts to vote on April 26 and three remaining districts of Murshidabad,Malda and North Dinajpur,all Congress bastions,on April 30 a senior official of the election commission rejected Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjees contention that the poll panel was consulted before notifying the election.

The commission received the notification late in the night on Friday.We were not consulted by the government before the election notification was issued by the government, said a senior official of the Commission.

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Upping the ante,the minister today said the election commission has to accept the governments decision.

The government has analysed the situation and for maintaining the law and order,the election will take place in two phases. We have issued the notification abiding by all the rules and regulations of the West Bengal Panchayat Act. The commission has to accept the governments decision and that is the rule. The government and commission will conduct the election together, he added.

He,however,added there was no confrontation between the election commission and state government.

BJP said it was consulting legal experts for its future course of action as it believes that fixing dates and holding the panchayat poll is the sole responsibility of the SEC as per Constitution.

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CPM said it will wait till Monday when the poll panel will meet to decide on the governments notification.

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