While the Supreme Court gave the West Bengal government time till June 30 to reconstitute seven municipalities so that the State Election Commission (SEC) could hold polls for them, State Election Commissioner S. R. Upadhyaya on Monday asked for time till November 30. The time is required as per the rules of conducting elections in the civic bodies, the SEC officials said.
“We will first need a notice from the State government on the number of wards in each of the civic bodies. Then the Commission will decide the boundary and area of the wards on basis of its population (delimitation). The process will take 45 days,” a Commission official said.
“This will be followed by the reservation of the wards, which will take 10 weeks,” the official said adding that it would take “25 days” in between declaring the date of notification till the electoral process is complete. Thus, altogether the Commission needs about five months and cannot hold the election before November 30.
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While the civic body at Asansol is already a municipal corporation, the State Government wants to merge Bidhannagar-Rajarhat-Gopalpur and make it one municipal corporation. The State government wants to include Bally in Howrah Municipal Corporation.
The time is required as per the rules of conducting elections in the civic bodies: SEC officials