TMC skips all-party meet on rural polls

CPM requested the SEC to re-adjust the poll timing from 6 am to 4 pm instead of 7 am to 5 pm

The Trinamool Congress Saturday boycotted the all-party meeting convened by State Election Commission (SEC) chief Meera Pandey to discuss the forthcoming panchayat polls,with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slamming the poll panel for taking unilateral decisions without consulting the state government.

The Congress and CPM,the two main Opposition parties that attended the meeting,termed the TMCs absence as unprecedented.

Stating that the party felt no need to attend the all-party meeting,Mamata,at a rally in South 24-Parganas,said,There was a conspiracy to disrupt the polls and create a situation in which they are now being held during Ramzan,amid flood threats,and when a number of examination dates are clashing with the poll period.

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We will not let this go. We will take revenge… The people would give a fitting reply through ballots, she said,without naming who the party will take revenge against. Earlier,TMC spokesperson Partha Chatterjee said the party decided to skip the all-party meeting since the poll panel had taken decisions unilaterally. The party leadership felt that there was no room for discussions any more, said Chatterjee. He said the party had informed the SEC of its decision through a fax.

Both the state government and the SEC have been at loggerheads over the holding of the rural polls and both sides had moved court.

Last week,the Supreme Court had fixed the polling dates on July 11,15,19,22 and 25 and turned down the plea of the state government and some NGOs seeking to reschedule the dates in view of the Ramzan month.

At the meet,the CPM requested the SEC to re-adjust the poll timing from 6 am to 4 pm instead of 7 am to 5 pm. All parties except the BJP agreed to the proposal,said CPM spokesman Rabin Deb.