The Supreme Court on Friday, 24 August, delivered a massive victory to the Trinamool Congress by holding that there will no re-elections in the 20,000-odd seats that went uncontested in the West Bengal Panchayat polls.
The court did so by not the allowing the pleas of the BJP and the CPI(M) seeking cancellation of the panchayat polls in the uncontested seats.
The apex court further set aside the Calcutta High Court order allowing filing of nomination papers through email and WhatsApp during the polls.
The court, however, said that those who were obstructed from filing their nomination papers could challenge the polls by filing fresh election petitions.
Exercising its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution, a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud held that the limitation period of 30 days for filing the election petitions, which has expired, would commence from the date of notification of panchayat poll results.
TMC Rejoices, BJP Says Will Fight Democratically
The Trinamool Congress welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision as a "victory of democracy" and asked Opposition parties to apologise to the people of the state.
"We are very happy. We welcome the verdict of the court. It is a victory of democracy. We have been saying this for a long time," TMC Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee said.
"This is a historic verdict. This is a big lesson for Opposition parties. It has been proved that their allegations are baseless. They should apologise to the people of the state," Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said.
Meanwhile, the BJP said it has accepted the verdict and would fight the TMC democratically.
"We accept the verdict of the Supreme Court. We'll fight against TMC democratically in the next Lok Sabha elections.
The people of the state will have the last word," state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
WB Panchayat Polls Marred By Violence
Earlier, the apex court had termed the situation as "grim and grave" and had directed the West Bengal State Election Commission not to declare and notify the results of panchayat body elections.
The polls were marred by allegations of large scale violence and alleged obstruction of filing nomination papers.
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