CPM questions Mamata’s intentions

New Delhi:Expressing scepticism over the Mamata Banerjee government’s intention to hold panchayat polls in West Bengal,the CPM Sunday said the Trinamool Congress had lost its support base it had in 2011. “Now,when both the state Panchayat and the law ministers have said the state government will challenge the High Court’s order in a division bench and then again,if things go otherwise,approach the Supreme Court,it is evident that the Trinamool does not want to hold rural polls at all,” Leader of Opposition in Assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra said.

Mishra,also a CPM politburo member who is here to attend the party’s Central Committee meeting,said. “From the outset,we were apprehensive about the government’s intention of holding panchayat polls. Vote share in the 2011 Assembly polls showed that if the Trinamool contested without Congress support,then the Left Front was much ahead. And Trinamool’s support base today is not where it was in 2011.” He said while the Chief Minister was saying that her government wanted to hold panchayat elections on time,“her own ministers are voicing contrary views. From the first day,this government is full of contradictions.”

Govt trying to delay polls,says Cong

Siliguri:West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradip Bhattacharya Sunday alleged that the state government wants to delay rural polls by challenging the Calcutta High Court order in a division bench.

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“If the state government really wants to hold panchayat elections early,then why is it going to the division bench of the High Court against the decision of the single bench to hold the polls in June,” Bhattacharya said at a press conference here.

“Probably the Trinamool government is afraid that it will lose the panchayat elections if it is held in June due to the chit fund scam. So they want to delay holding the polls by going to the division bench of the high court and to the Supreme Court,” Bhattacharya said.