Refuting what Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has predicted that the Assembly polls in Bengal might be advanced, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said that election will in no way be held before the time-frame as stipulated by the Constitution.
“As prescribed by the Constitution of India, the state will go for Assembly polls in 2011 only. The state government will complete its full term. The polls are not going to happen before 2011 on the whims of someone,” Mr Bose said at the party headquarters.
Significantly, the Trinamul Congress chief on Thursday had claimed that she had held a discussion with Union home minister P. Chidambaram recently about advancing the West Bengal Assembly elections which are due in June 2011. “I have some knowledge about our Constitution. I had held discussions with the Union home minister regarding early elections in the state. But I will not divulge the details of the deliberations,” Ms Banerjee had said while releasing the party manifesto for the civic elections. She had added that the Assembly elections would be held in October 2010 as some other states, including Bihar, would go to polls during that period.
Taking pot-shots at Ms Banerjee’s prediction — which the Marxist party seems to be taking as her ploy to “demoralise” the ruling party — Mr Bose said, “Those who have had an ABC (rudimentary) knowledge of the Constitu-tion cannot claim so, demanding early election without the consent of the ruling state government.”
Earlier, Ms Banerjee had pitched for an early Assembly polls saying, “Is the government in Bengal functioning? It has now become a de-funct government. This is our political calculation that early election would be inevitable after three months of the civic polls.”