Kolkata, July 30 (IANS) It may have been at loggerheads with the Mamata Banerjee regime, but the West Bengal State Election Commission Tuesday said it got cooperation from the state government in conducting the panchayat polls.
“No election can be conducted without the cooperation of the state government and we did get cooperation to some extent. I can say we received cooperation from the state government. Beyond that I won’t comment any further on that,” State Election Commissioner Mira Pande told media persons here.
The SEC was engaged in a bitter legal battle with the Banerjee regime over a host of issues regarding the conduct of the panchayat polls.
The legal wrangle had resulted in the Trinamool getting engaged in war of words against Pande with many of the ruling party leaders making personal remarks against her.
With the government forced to accept a five-phase polls under central forces following a court order, Banerjee had vowed to take revenge against the SEC albeit “democratically”. She also regretted her government’s inability to remove Pande.
Pande’s uncompromising stand of not conducting the polls sans the deployment of central forces had even made a Trinamool parliamentarian say “she had fallen in love with the central security forces”.
The ruling Trinamool swept the panchayat polls claiming 13 of the 17 zila parishads (district councils). The five-phase polls were conducted in 17 districts beginning July 11 and the results were declared Tuesday.
