Kolkata, Feb 2 (PTI) Several opposition political parties in West Bengal on Wednesday urged the State Election Commission to defer the counting of votes in four municipal corporations and hold the exercise simultaneously with the counting in 108 municipalities in the state.

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The civic poll in the four municipal corporations is slated to be held on Februray 12 and the counting for them on February 14. The election to the 108 municipalities is scheduled for February 27.

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The BJP has also demanded the postponement of the poll to the 108 civic bodies by four week's from February 27.

"We find no reason behind the decision to undertake counting for the four municipal corporations on February 14, two days after the polling ... We urged that the exercise should be made only after the election to 108 other civic bodies. Results of the four municipal corporations and the municipalties should be declared on the same day. That is the usual practice everywhere," CPI-M central committee member Rabin Deb said after the party's meeting with the SEC.

The parties met the SEC separately.

The Left party has also demanded that the time for campaigning be extended to 10 pm every day.

A spokesperson of the Congress delegation said "We too raised the demand for deferring the counting for the four municipal corporations till the election to 108 municipalties take place"

BJP leader Sisir Bajoria told the media, "We fail to fathom why there is so much hurry to announce the results before the election to 108 municipalties gets over."

He cited the example of the coming assembly poll in five states, where the counting of votes will be taken up only after the entire election process is over.

State election will be held in February-March in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Bajoria, who was accompanied by BJP leader Agnimtra Pal, said "We want the election to 108 municipalties to be held after improvement in the COVID-19 situation. We demand deferment of February 27 polls by four weeks".

Ruling Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Roy alleged that the opposition parties are resorting to the "delaying tactics" sensing defeat in the civic poll.

"We have demanded that the polls be held in free and fair manner. We asked the SEC to ensure that, We also called for extending the time for campaigning," he said.

After the Kolkata Municipal Corporation poll on December 19, 2021, the SEC had ordered that civic election be held in four municipal corporations on February 12 and 108 other civic bodies in the state on February 27.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)