The State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday postponed the municipal polls in West Bengal over the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) scare. No dates have been announced for the polls yet.
Further decision in the matter will be taken 15 days later after holding a review meeting to assess the prevailing situation around COVID-19, State Election Commissioner Sourav Das said.
The decision was taken after the election body met with representatives of ten recognised political parties at its office on Monday.
The municipal polls in state were originally slated to start from April. Major political parties had already planned to appeal to the election body to defer the coming polls amidst COVID-19 scare.
In a statement on Sunday, the ruling party in West Bengal – Trinamool Congress – had said that all the political parties must act together to fight the COVID-19 threat and that politics is not more important than the well-being of society.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left Front had also said that they would ask the election body to take “pro-people” measures regarding the polls under the backdrop of COVID-19.
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