Kolkata: The West Bengal state election commission (SEC) on Thursday deferred the publication of the final electoral rolls for seven civic bodies, including Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which were scheduled to be put up on Nov 12. The SEC did not announce the revised date for the final lists.Officials said it was now practically impossible for the SEC to adhere to the original deadline set by the chief minister for the completion of KMC election. CM Suvendu Adhikari had earlier said the KMC would get a new board before the first week of Dec.The delay also applies to Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) and the municipalities of Bally, Haldia, Dhupguri, Kalimpong and Kurseong, where elections were expected to be held in the first phase. Political parties are now preparing for a possible delay in civic elections.Explaining the reason for the deferment, a senior official said the rules stipulated that the final electoral roll had to be published on the seventh day of a notification announcing the elections. “As the poll notification was not issued on Thursday, Nov 5, the SEC has directed the date for final publication of the rolls be extended. Under the circumstances, elections cannot be held before Nov 30,” the official said.In a letter to the KMC district municipal election officer and the DMs of South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and East Midnapur, SEC secretary Arindam Mani said, “I am directed to inform you that the date for final publication of electoral roll, which was earlier scheduled to be published on 12.11.2026, is hereby extended. And the revised date of final publication will be notified in due course.”The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed that no notification on the KMC elections be issued until Nov 6, when it was likely to pronounce its verdict on a petition challenging the delimitation of municipal wards.The opposition, which has flagged erroneous booth distribution in the delimitation of KMC wards, has been demanding that the KMC elections be deferred until EC publishes the final rolls only after its special summary revision in Jan. “It has become clear that KMC elections could not be held according to the CM’s deadline. They have redrawn the KMC ward maps after the hearings, which is illegal. The voter list is erroneous, with names of several dead voters still on it. We demand that KMC elections be held after publication of EC’s electoral roll in Jan,” Ashutosh Chatterjee of the Congress said.CPM’s Kallol Majumdar alleged BJP wanted to defer the KMC elections because of infighting over poll tickets. Refuting the allegation, BJP’s Sisir Bajoria said, “We want elections on time. But the opposition wants to defer it as the parties are not prepared.”MLA Sandipan Saha, a Democratic Trinamool Congress member, said, “I think the govt is waiting for the final verdict on the case pending in court.”Ratna Sur, chairperson of Mamata All India Trinamool Congress South Kolkata district, claimed election officials were “unprepared and clueless”. “They are changing the time of meeting one day and altering the date for the publication of final voter list the other day,” she said.
