Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday alleged that Trinamool Congress (TMC) was trying to take “unethical advantage” in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Election by not holding the municipal polls in due time.

The term of all Municipalities and Municipal Corporations in the state came to an end last year. The elections were due in May and June.

But due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the West Bengal administration had failed to have the polls in their scheduled time. The institutions are currently run by an unelected Board of Administrators.

“The terms of councillors in municipalities across West Bengal have come to an end. But the state government has placed administrators instead of holding fresh elections. To achieve political goals, they are breaching constitutional guidelines,” said Chowdhury in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.

“Actually, the Trinamool Congress government is not conducting the municipal polls to take unethical advantage in the Vidhan Sabha election,” the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief added.

“Participation of people is the most important aspect of democracy. But TMC has placed unelected administrators to satisfy its politiical agenda.

“The administrators are working beyond the ambit of constitutional guidelines. I request the Election Commission to ensure that TMC doesn’t influence citizens like this,” he added.

The Supreme Court of India in December last year had directed the state government to hold the elections immediately. Following the court’s order, Bengal administration decided to conduct the polls in March this year.

But if latest news reports are to be believed the Election Commission is planning to hold the State Assembly election in March and the dates could be declared in February.

As a result, Municipal Affairs Minister of West Bengal Firhad Hakim informed that the Municipality votes are likely to be postponed again, reported Hindustan Times Bangla.

Hakim informed that after declaration of the Vidhan Sabha election’s dates in February, the West Bengal administration would go under the ambit of EC. Thus, the Municipality elections would not be possible then.