Kolkata: Slamming the opposition for allegedly stalling municipal elections, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya on Wednesday backed chief minister Suvendu Adhikari’s proposal to appoint coordinators and said local party functionaries would oversee civic services until the court resolves the impasse.“We have full respect for the court order. Currently, civic services have gone for a toss and people have been suffering because of such stalemate condition. The municipal boards were dissolved and we did not ask them (TMC) to do so. Rather this was the fallout of an internal feud in the TMC. We don’t want common people to face problems for lack of civic servicers. We are awaiting the court to resolve the matter and till then, local BJP functionaries will be appointed as coordinators to look after municipal works,” he said.The CM had earlier announced that the state govt would challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court and appoint coordinators in all 209 proposed KMC wards after Nov 30 if elections remained stalled.Bhattacharya also accused the TMC of delaying civic polls in Howrah, saying residents were suffering due to the absence of an elected civic body. “In the past 13 years there was no election in Howrah Municipal Corporation, and this stalemate situation was created by TMC,” he said.Last Friday, a Calcutta High Court division bench restrained the State Election Commission from notifying KMC polls until a single bench decides a petition challenging the proposed increase in wards from 144 to 209.“The court is born for people, people are not born for courts. Legal hurdles are adding to the woes of people who are not getting civic services,” he said.
