Panchayat election in Bengal seems uncertain on May 14

Looks like the panchayat elections in Bengal may not be held on May 14.

On May 4, Friday, the Calcutta High Court ordered another hearing of the case again on May 8. The Opposition parties – the BJP, the Congress and the Left had moved court questioning how it would be possible to hold the elections on a single day.

Senior officials indicated that it would be extremely difficult to make all necessary preparations within such a short time – whatever the court decides on the next hearing.

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Earlier, the rural polls were scheduled to be held on May 1, 3 and 5. But it was cancelled because of legal complications.

The run-up to the panchayat polls has been extremely violent with bloodshed and clashes during the filing of nominations. Two persons have died and there has been a series of clashes. Trinamool Congress, the ruling party, has been alleged to be leading in the violence, not allowing the opposition candidates to file nominations. The Trinamool Congress has already won 20,076 of the 58,692 seats uncontested – which accounts for 34 per cent of the seats.

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