The opposition Congress today alleged that panchayat elections in West Bengal were suddenly announced to not let opposition parties file nomination papers and also the ruling TMC's members were not allowing its candidates to submit their nominations.
Admitting that they were caught off guard by the announcement of the polls, state PCC president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused TMC activists of not allowing Congress candidates to file nominations in Murshidabad district.
"We were caught off guard. The rural polls were announced suddenly to ensure that the opposition parties cannot file nomination papers", he told newsmen.
The rural polls in West Bengal would be held in 20 districts on May 1, 3 and 5.
The panchayat polls were also announced to cover up the factional-feud within the ruling Trinamool Congress, Chowdhury claimed and said the election has been reduced to a "farce".
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The PCC chief said he has sought time from Governor K N Tripathi to inform him of the prevailing situation.
Chowdhury said that the Congress would also approach the state election commission (SEC) for steps to enable opposition candidates to file their nominations.
"The state election commissioner is a clawless tiger," he alleged and said the Congress has demanded deployment of central forces during the panchayat poll.
Meanwhile, a senior state Congress leader said, "We won't be able to field candidates in all the seats... Leave aside gram panchayat... We have doubts whether we will be able to field candidates for zilla parishads."
The Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, was confident of winning the rural polls and said opposition parties were giving excuses as they are afraid of fighting elections.
"They (opposition parties) are afraid of fighting the polls, that is why they are giving vague excuses... TMC has no role in announcing the poll dates. The SEC did what they felt right," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee told PTI.
Senior CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty alleged that the ruling party has deliberately misled the Opposition as only a few days back the chief minister herself had stated there is still time for the panchayat polls.
He said, "We (CPI-M) will fight the panchayat polls with all our strength. They (TMC) want to ensure that we cannot file nominations as they are well aware that a fair election will result in their defeat."
Although BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said the BJP would put up a strong fight in the rural polls, a senior saffron party leader has expressed doubt saying the party is yet to reach out to 77,000 booths in the state.
"We have not yet been able to reach to all the booths of the state. How do you expect us to field candidates to all the seats and that too in such a short span," he said, adding the BJP will try it's best to put up candidates in all the seats.
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