Kolkata : The campaign drums fell silent on Thursday in 91 civic bodies of West Bengal that are slated to go to the hustings on Saturday, as opposition parties and the civil society hit the streets against recent electoral malpractices and poll-related violence in the state.
The civic bodies include 88 municipalities, two municipal corporations – Siliguri and Chandannagar – and the Taherpur notified area.
Saturday’s civic polls, covering 18 districts, are being held exactly a week after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, which saw allegations of widespread electoral violence and irregularities from the opposition.
State Election Commissioner S.R. Upadhyay initially said “ideally, if the polling is conducted properly, you don’t get so much of complaints”.
As in the KMC polls, the main contenders on Saturday would be the ruling Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) -led Left Front, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
On the last day, all parties brought out rallies, cycle processions, and held small street corner meetings till the deadline of 3 p.m.
BJP leader Roopa Ganguly staged a sit-in at Basirhat, complaining of terror unleashed by the ruling party.
The Left also brought out a number of rallies alleging that the Trinamool had requisitioned anti-social elements to turn the polls “into a farce”.
In the heart of the city, painters, academicians, thespians, actors, retired judges held a meeting urging people to build up a movement against “trampling of democracy” in the state.
Among those who attended the meeting were former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, retired Supreme Court judge Asok Ganguly, academician Miratun Nahar, thespian Kaushik Sen, painters Wasim Kapoor and Samir Aich and former city mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
The civic polls are being seen as semi-finals to the assembly elections next year.