The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere in the West Bengal panchayat polls, and asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to approach the state election commission to make their requests. The BJP’s state unit had sought to extend the last day to file nominations for the polls and asked that nomination forms be made available online. Monday is the last day to file nominations.
“We are not interfering in the matter,” said justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre, according to Live Law. “But we give liberty to all candidates to approach the state election commission.”
In its plea filed on Thursday, the West Bengal BJP alleged that workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress were not allowing its candidates to file their nominations. The BJP also asked that troops of the Central Reserve Police Force be deployed during the panchayat elections, which are scheduled to be held in three phases, on May 1, May 3 and May 5. The results will be declared on May 8.
The Supreme Court, which heard the arguments on Friday, had reserved its verdict. At the hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the petitioner, claimed that the Trinamool Congress had turned West Bengal into a “troubled state”. Rohatgi told the bench that the party had to approach the Supreme Court because Calcutta High Court judges had been on a strike since February 19.
In response, senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the West Bengal government, accused the BJP of “fomenting trouble” in the state only to seek the Centre’s attention as the saffron party has “no presence in West Bengal”.
The BJP had filed the plea a day after a man was killed outside the office of the block development officer in West Bengal’s Bankura district. The saffron party had said that the victim, Ajit Murmu, was one of its candidates for the panchayat elections and blamed the Trinamool Congress for his death. The West Bengal Police have neither confirmed Murmu’s political affiliations nor his attackers’ identity yet.
There have been several clashes over the last week between BJP and Trinamool Congress workers while candidates were filing nomination papers for the elections.
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