Left mulls strike call, petition in top court

BJP leader Locket Chatterjee after being detained during a protest in front of the state election commission’s office on Tuesday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

TT, Calcutta: Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Tuesday that the situation surrounding the nomination process for the Bengal panchayat elections was unprecedented and threatened to call a general strike if the matters worsened.

Bose said he would move the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the state election commission's alleged failure to ensure filing of nominations by prospective candidates, despite a directive to the effect from the country' top court.

"In my long political career, I have never heard of any election like this in Bengal before and even elsewhere in the country. A precedence has been created over conducting rural polls under the diktat of Trinamul. We are left with no other option but to give a call for a general strike any day if the situation worsens. The call will be from 17 Left parties," Bose told a news conference at CPM headquarters here.

After an emergency meeting of the 17 Left parties at Alimuddin Street, Bose said: "We are moving Supreme Court tomorrow (Wednesday). This impasse cannot go on for long. We need certain issues to be addressed."

Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said threats from Trinamul had forced the election commissioner to rescind the extension order. "We had expected it to happen. The threats he received last night and this morning from Trinamul ministers compelled him to rescind his earlier order. I wonder whether he would be able to stay till the panchayat poll ends," said Ghosh.

Predicting a rerun of the episode in which former state election commissioner Sushanta Upadhyay quit, Left legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty said: "We all remember Mr Upadhyay who could not complete his tenure and had to resign under tremendous pressure and insult from the ruling Trinamul. Revocation of last night's order, too, is an indication of a repeat of that. The chief minister had expressed her displeasure over the decision of extension last night and it was revoked this morning. Who is running the state election commission?" asked Chakraborty.