Kolkata: Municipal polls in Kolkata and Howrah, along with five other municipalities, are likely to be held in the last week of Nov, for which the notification could be issued before Oct 31, a senior official said. With preparations in full swing, West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) is scheduled to hold a video conference with the district magistrates concerned on Friday to review election preparedness.Apart from Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC), elections will be held simultaneously in Bali, Haldia, Dhupguri, Kalimpong and Kurseong municipalities.SEC is in the process of bringing about 21,000 EVMs from EC. The EVMs will come from Mumbai and Bengaluru, officials said.Though the poll schedule has not been officially announced yet, officials said voting could take place before Nov 30. Polling will be conducted at around 6,400 booths across the seven municipalities.“If the state govt wants to form boards in seven civic bodies, including KMC, by Dec 7, then voting will have to take place before November 30. In that scenario, the state government will have to issue a notification in the last week of October, followed by SEC,” a senior official elaborated. In that case, the notification could be issued between Lakshmi and Kali Puja.Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had on June 15 announced that KMC elections would be held by Dec 7, when the tenure of the previous board would have expired had it not been dissolved.“The SEC is expected to conclude the election process in these seven corporations and municipalities by the first week of December. The elections will be held based on the electoral roll published on July 1 by EC. State election commissioner Krishna Gupta will hold a meeting with the DMs concerned on the poll preparations on Friday morning,” another official said.The meeting is expected to discuss arrangements for polling, including logistics and other requirements. The meeting will also review key aspects of the election process, including delimitation, reservation of seats, EVM management, electoral rolls, polling stations, deployment of polling personnel and other arrangements, officials said.State govt faces the challenge of conducting elections in as many as 127 municipalities and corporations within the next five months, including seven civic bodies which will go to poll in the first phase.“EC has dispatched approximately 21,000 EVMs to SEC for conducting elections in all these 127 civic bodies. Close to 6,400 EVMs will be deployed in the elections in seven civic bodies, and the remaining will be kept for polling purposes for other municipalities and corporations,” an official quipped.
