The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that postponing elections is an extreme thing to order in a democracy and expressed its aversion towards it.
The top court was hearing a contempt plea by Trinamool Congress in connection to the violence in the poll-bound northeastern state, and refused to postpone the municipal elections scheduled on November 25.
“If we do it then it will set a wrong precedent,” the Supreme Court said, adding that postponing the elections is the last resort.
The top court observed that the election process has begun and the campaigning was set to end at 4.30pm on Tuesday. While the voting for 334 seats of the urban local bodies would take place on Thursday, the ballots will be counted November 28.
The court, however, said that the concerns expressed by the Trinamool Congress can be suitably addressed and directions can be issued to the Tripura government to ensure that remaining phases of the civic polls take place in a peaceful and orderly manner.
The top court had last week asked Tripura police to ensure that no political party was prevented from exercising their rights in accordance with law for political campaigning in a peaceful manner.
The Trinamool Congress alleged that several of its supporters and workers sustained injuries following an attack on the residence of the party’s Tripura unit leader Subal Bhowmik at Bhagaban Thakur Chowmuni area in state capital Agartala on Sunday.
The political battlefield in Tripura is heating up ahead of the November 25 civic polls. Several clashes have been reported in the northeastern state over the past week, with former Union minister and Babul Supriyo – who switched over to Trinamool Congress from the BJP recently – claiming on Saturday that he was harassed by BJP cadres while assessing poll preparations.
On Sunday, the Tripura police arrested Trinamool youth leader and actor Saayoni Ghosh on charges of allegedly promoting enmity between people, attempt-to-murder, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy, apart from disrupting a civic poll rally led by Biplab Deb on Saturday. However, a local court granted her bail a day later.
