Supreme Court of India

The West Bengal CPI-M leadership on Wednesday said it has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court anticipating a petition from the State Election Commission, which has challenged the Calcutta High Court's order directing the SEC to accept the online nominations submitted by the left party candidates for the state rural polls.

The SEC on Wednesday morning moved the apex court challenging an order issued by a divisional bench of the Calcutta High Court that stated the nomination papers of those candidates named by appellant CPI-M, who had filed their papers electronically before the deadline of 3 p.m. on April 23, should be accepted.

"The State Election Commission has moved the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict regarding acceptance of e-nominations in the coming state rural polls. We anticipated that something like this would happen. So we have filed a caveat in the apex court today morning," Communist Party of India-Marxist state Secretary Surja Kanta Misra told reporters here.

"The West Bengal government, the state's ruling party (Trinamool Congress) and the State Election Commission are jointly trying to ignore the directions of Calcutta High Court regarding the Panchayat election process. So the SEC's appeal to the apex court is not a one off incident," he said.

Misra claimed the uncertainty over the coming Panchayat elections in the state was something which was unprecedented during the 34 years of Left regime and said the situation this time is worse than the last rural polls under the Trinamool Congress government in 2013.

"The situation is far worse than the last election five years ago. The current State Clection Commissioner has broken all records of uncertainty over conducting polls. The last State Election Commissioner had the back bone, which the current commissioner lacks," he said.

The CPI-M leader also claimed that the state government and the ruling Trinamool are desperate and rigid in their bid to conduct the polls according to their convenience. Misra said the CPI-M is ready to fight both inside and outside the court and would contest the election whenever it happens.

"We will battle it out in the apex court if needed. We will contest the election and fight against the atrocities before and after the polls," he said. He also added that since the High Court order on Tuesday, prospective candidates of the left party, who filed the nominations online, are under attack.

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