Kolkata, Dec 10 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court on Friday reserved judgment on petitions seeking elections to all municipal bodies in West Bengal in one day.

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The state BJP, one of the two petitioners, has also prayed that counting be held in one day, if not the elections, claiming that results of one poll may affect another if declared in phases.

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The State Election Commission (SEC) has submitted to the court in an affidavit that counting cannot be held together owing to paucity of EVM machines.

Hearing on the two petitions – one filed by the Bengal BJP and other by an individual -- concluded on Friday before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj.

Lawyer for BJP state vice president Pratap Banerjee prayed that elections to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) be held with the use of VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trial).

He submitted that the KMC elections should be postponed until arrangements for such provisions are made.

Opposing the prayer, counsel for the SEC submitted that use of VVPAT is not a mandatory provision for holding civic polls.

He also said that providing exact dates for holding polls to 111 municipal bodies in the state, where elections are pending for almost two years, is not possible at present since the COVID-19 situation emerging out of the advent of the new Omicron variant has to be monitored and the dates of school board examinations factored in.

The SEC has, in its affidavit, told the court that elections to the 111 municipal bodies will be held in six to eight phases by May, 2022.

Civic polls in Kolkata, however, are scheduled to be held on December 19.

(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)