'Stooge' tag on poll panel in HC ... Rural election tussle in court and outside

TT, Calcutta: The Bengal election commission acted as a "stooge" of the Mamata Banerjee government in withdrawing the one-day extension for panchayat poll nominations, the CPM alleged in Calcutta High Court on Wednesday.

CPM leader and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said the government and the ruling Trinamul had coerced the panel into withdrawing the extension. "The election commission acted as a stooge of the government. The commission was made to withdraw its (April 9) notification with muscle power and at gunpoint," Bhattacharyya told a single bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar which has stalled the poll process after Opposition complaints of intimidation during nominations.

Bhattacharyya said such a situation was "not acceptable in a democratic set-up". "The court should issue an order asking the poll panel to declare panchayat polls afresh." The bench extended the interim pause on the poll process till the next hearing on Thursday.

Before Bhattacharyya, Trinamul counsel and party MP Kalyan Banerjee argued for three hours on Wednesday, saying Opposition pleas claiming intimidation in nominations should be filed before the poll panel, not courts.

After Bhattacharyya, representatives of the BJP, the Congress and the PDS will argue their case. The election commission and the panchayat department will then spell out their stand on the petitioners' contentions.

On Wednesday, Bhattacharyya claimed Trinamul lawyer Banerjee had wasted the court's time trying to argue that the petitions filed by the Opposition should be junked.

"The Supreme Court had found the petitions maintainable. That's why it had sent the cases back to Calcutta High Court. So the question of maintainability does not arise. The court should take penal measures against Trinamul for wasting the court's valuable time," said Bhattacharyya.

Justice Talukdar had earlier observed that the court was forced to stall the process because of the withdrawal of the nomination deadline extension by election commissioner A.K. Singh.

On Wednesday, Banerjee reiterated an earlier claim that the extension violated panchayat poll rules, and that courts did not have the right to interfere in actions taken by the poll panel while the process was on.

Justice Talukdar then asked: "Where will people who are aggrieved by the poll process go for remedy?" Banerjee replied that they must wait till the end of the election process to move court.