Kolkata civic polls face a fresh administrative deadlock after BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya backed the proposal to appoint coordinators for civic services in all 209 proposed Kolkata Municipal Corporation wards while the election dispute remains before the courts.
Bhattacharya said local BJP functionaries would oversee municipal works until the legal impasse is resolved. He said the party respected the court order but claimed civic services had deteriorated during the stalemate, affecting residents.
“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,” Bhattacharya said, according to the report. He also said municipal boards had been dissolved following an internal dispute within the Trinamool Congress, and that the BJP did not want residents to face difficulties because of the absence of functioning civic arrangements.
The statement follows an earlier announcement by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari that the state government would challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court. The government has also proposed appointing coordinators in all 209 proposed KMC wards if elections remain stalled after November 30.
The immediate dispute concerns the proposed increase in the number of KMC wards from 144 to 209. A Calcutta High Court division bench last Friday restrained the State Election Commission from notifying the municipal polls until a single bench decides a petition challenging the proposed ward expansion.
The court-linked pause has placed the municipal election schedule and the interim administration of civic services in the same chain of events. The proposed coordinator arrangement would therefore operate while the judicial process over the ward structure continues. The report does not specify the powers, accountability framework or administrative qualifications that would apply to the proposed coordinators.
Bhattacharya also accused the Trinamool Congress of delaying elections to the Howrah Municipal Corporation. He said Howrah had gone without a municipal election for 13 years and alleged that residents were suffering because the corporation lacked an elected civic body. These were political allegations made by Bhattacharya and were not independently established in the report.
The controversy highlights the administrative consequences of prolonged uncertainty over elected local bodies. Municipal corporations are responsible for day-to-day services, while election authorities and courts determine the procedures and legal limits governing local polls. In Kolkata, the immediate institutional question is how civic functions will be managed while the proposed ward reconfiguration remains under judicial consideration.
The state government’s planned Supreme Court challenge and the proposed November 30 deadline are the next stated steps. The final election schedule will depend on the court proceedings concerning the increase from 144 to 209 wards.
