TMC justifies in Supreme Court uncontested seats

New Delhi: The ruling TMC which had won 34 per cent of seats uncontested in the gram panchayat polls in West Bengal on Monday justified in the Supreme Court the elections and urged the court not to interfere.

Senior counsel Kalyan Bandopadyaya, appearing for the TMC made this submission before a three-judge Bench comprising the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud hearing petitions seeking cancellation of the polls.

As per the data released by the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) 20,076 of the 58,692 seats were gone uncontested. The TMC won 16,814 of the 48,650 Gram Panchayat seats while the party won 3,059 of 9,217 Panchayat Samity seats uncontested. Moreover, of the 825 Zilla Parishad seats, the Mamta Banerjee-led party was declared the winner in 203 seats. Counsel said the SEC data revealed that most of the seats where TMC won without any contest are in the districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas. He said there was not a single complaint from a candidate that he/she was prevented from contesting the polls. Uncontested seats are not an issue as those with little chance of win would not contest.

Senior counsel Amkarendra Saran appearing for the State election commission it is the duty of the Commission to conduct free and fair polls. He said “when there are no candidates to contest, we (Commission) cannot persuade the candidates to contest. Large number of seats remain uncontested is not a ground for interference by this court.”