Summary:
Kolkata, Dec 6 (PTI) The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday said before the Calcutta High Court that the state government has proposed that elections to 111 municipal bodies be held by May, 2022 in six to eight phases.
The SEC in an affidavit submitted before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj also stated that owing to paucity of EVMs, counting of votes cannot be held together.
The SEC affidavit said "the state government has proposed that the municipal elections may be held in 6 - 8 phases by May, 2022" and that the exact schedule will depend upon the COVID-19 situation and the schedule of secondary and higher secondary examinations.
It said that the state government has also cited the uncertain impact of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 as a reason for not being able to finalise the schedule of elections to the 111 municipal bodies.
Election to Kolkata Municipal Corporation will be held on December 19.
Maintaining that it has a limited number of EVMs at its disposal, the SEC said that since the elections to other municipalities would have to be held in phases, the results, too, will have to be declared in phases for securing use of maximum number of EVMs.