Bengal panchayat polls on April 26 and 30

KOLKATA: State panchayat minister SubrataMukherjee on Friday declared that the panchayat polls in Bengal will be held on April 26 and 30, sticking to the two phase rural polls. Now it is the state election commission (SEC) to decide if they will agree to the two phase polls and dates declared by the state government.
Among the 17 districts of the state, election for 14 districts will be held on April 26, while for the three districts which are traditional Congress belts like Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur election will be on April 30.
Mukherjee said that the state government was determined to conduct polls in a peaceful manner and for that already the state had informed the SEC for conducting the polls with armed guards. While deciding the poll dates, the chief secretary held meeting with the district magistrates on Friday noon and took stock of the law and order situation.
However, West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said that they will urge the SEC not to accept the two dates as advised by the state government. Instead, he wanted a three or four phase poll. "The way the state government declared dates of two phase polls it exposes the state government nakedly."
Earlier the state election commission had stated that they will conduct the polls with at least two armed guards in each polling stations. There will be over 57,000 polling stations for the three tier panchayat polls.