West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Election Commission of India may declare poll dates for the crucial state assembly elections in the next seven days.
“Election dates are likely to be announced in the next seven to eight days. We do not have much time,” Banerjee said at one of her recent rallies.
Elections to the 294-seat West Bengal legislative assembly are expected to be held in March-April. She was addressing a rally at Alipurduar district in north Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, while reiterating at least twice that there is less than a week before the ECI declares the poll dates, said that her government had taken up a series of schemes and development projects for north Bengal and more work would be done after the elections are over.
Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021
“We have kept all our promises. Whatever little remains would be taken up after the elections. We do not have time. Elections are likely to be announced in the next five days,” she said, while urging people to vote for the ruling TMC.
Also See: West Bengal 2021: Battleground for BJP and TMC
Vijayvargiya on BJP’s rath yatra
On the other hand, the BJP’s West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya said on Friday, that no district administration can stop the party’s proposed ‘rath yatras’ in the poll-bound state since there is no stay order on them. Vijayvargiya said that as the opposition party, it is the BJP’s ‘fundamental right to be among the people.’
“The court has not given stay order on rath yatra so district administration cannot stop it. As Opposition, it is our fundamental right to be among people. On February 6, (BJP president JP) Nadda ji will inaugurate the yatra and on February 11, home minister Amit Shah will attend another yatra from Coochbehar,” said Vijayvargiya.
Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, who had recently quit the Trinamool Congress, were shown black flags on their way to a public meeting in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district held earlier this week. The black flags were shown by local Trinamool workers, who said that they felt cheated by the “betrayal of the two leaders”.
Preparations for Polls in West Bengal
The full bench of the poll panel had visited West Bengal for two days in the third week of January to take stock of the preparedness, and law and order situation. Earlier, deputy election commissioner Sudeep Jain had visited the state twice to take stock of the situation.
The poll panel had held meetings with representatives of political parties, central and state regulatory agencies, and the state’s top bureaucrats including the state’s chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police.
At least three senior officials in the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office in poll-bound West Bengal were transferred by the ECI earlier this week. The list includes an additional-CEO, a joint-CEO and a deputy-CEO.