Calcutta High Court rejects BJP’s plea to stay Kolkata civic polls
The Hindu
A division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R. Bharadwaj in its order refused to stay the KMC elections as prayed for by the BJP.
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the , while directing the State poll panel and the West Bengal government to take measures for holding elections in other civic bodies at the earliest with the least possible number of phases.
The State Election Commission (SEC) and the State government had earlier told the court that elections to 111 municipal bodies will be held in six to eight phases by May 2022, but dates can be fixed later, taking into account the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and considering the school board examinations.
Leaders and legislators hailing from Ballari, which is part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, seem to be a source of much political upheaval in Karnataka, going by recent history. This has been the case since the time illegal mining hit national and international headlines in the 2000s and the place gained reputation as “Republic of Ballari”.
The former BJP MLA of Udupi K. Raghupathi Bhat claimed on Saturday that he contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ Constituency as rebel candidate made the saffron party field its party leader C. T. Ravi in the biennial elections to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly.