Polls in 108 municipalities in West Bengal on Feb 27

Kolkata: West Bengal is going to the third and final round of civic polls in 108 municipalities in the state on February 27. The state election commission (SEC) issued the notification on Thursday.

It said that February 9 is the last date of filing nominations which will be scrutinised the next day. The last date of withdrawal of candidatures is February 12 while the election process will be completed by March 8.

The date counting will be declared later, SEC chief Saurabh Das said. Most of the 108 municipalities are now in the control of the ruling Trinamul Congress. Among the 23 districts, only Darjeeling has one municipality. But in other districts the number of municipalities are multiple. 

Coochbehar has six municipalities. North 24 Parganas has 25 municipalities which are among the highest. The district also includes Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency which often witnesses trouble. 

There are two more districts, South 24 Parganas list, Nadia and Hooghly, which also have a large number of municipalities and are expected to see a close battle between the ruling TMC and BJP.

Interestingly, the second phase of civic polls is set to be held on February 12 in four municipal corporations at Asansol, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar and Siliguri after the Calcutta High Court ordered the SEC to postpone the round by 4-6 weeks in wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

Only the Howrah Municipal Corporation has not been scheduled for the civic polls as a bill, carving Bally Municipality out of it, is yet to get approval of governor Jagdeep Dhankhar even after it's passage in the assembly last year.