Suvendu Adhikari Says Bengal Govt Will Move Supreme Court Against KMC Poll Stay

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said the state government would approach the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court’s interim order restraining the State Election Commission from issuing a notification for the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation election.

Speaking in Kolkata following the court order, Adhikari said the government respected the High Court’s authority but had its own legal remedies available.

“The High Court certainly has the authority to do it. But we also have our own course of action. We will challenge this in the Supreme Court.”

His comments came after a Calcutta High Court division bench restrained the West Bengal State Election Commission from notifying the KMC elections until a single bench decides a pending challenge to the delimitation of municipal wards.

Dispute Over Increase From 144 to 209 Wards

The legal dispute centres on a September 11 delimitation notification proposing to increase the number of KMC wards from 144 to 209 and redraw existing boundaries.

Former CPI(M) councillor Dipu Das challenged the exercise, seeking to have the delimitation declared invalid.

The petitioner has argued that the exercise was carried out when the civic body did not have an elected council and has also questioned the method used to determine the revised ward structure.

High Court Stops Poll Notification for Now

A division bench comprising Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Justice Arjun Ray Mukherjee directed the State Election Commission not to issue an election notification based on the disputed delimitation until the single-judge bench disposes of the underlying petition.

The order does not cancel the KMC election, but prevents the election schedule from being notified under the revised ward structure while the legal challenge remains unresolved.

Adhikari Says Coordinators Will Be Appointed

Adhikari said he would wait until November 13 before appointing coordinators across all 209 proposed wards.

He said:

“After that, I will appoint a coordinator for every single one of the 209 wards.”

According to Adhikari, these coordinators would prepare for the civic election and, in the interim, perform functions intended to assist residents in their respective areas.

The statement reflects the state government’s political and administrative plan and does not alter the legal status of councillors under the municipal law.

‘We Are Preparing to Win the Election’

Adhikari also used the occasion to criticise those who had approached the court against the delimitation exercise.

He said parties expecting to lose elections resort to litigation, whereas parties confident of winning concentrate on campaign preparation.

Those remarks represent Adhikari’s political assessment of the petitioners and opposition parties.

He added that his party was continuing preparations for the KMC election despite the court proceedings.

Court Challenge Questions Delimitation Process

The petitioner has argued that the ward delimitation exercise relied on electoral rolls instead of actual population figures and that the absence of an elected KMC council raised questions over how the recommendation to redraw wards was made.

The state government has contested those arguments and maintained that it has legal authority to undertake the delimitation process.

The High Court has not yet finally decided the validity of the exercise.

Supreme Court Challenge Planned

With the KMC election High Court stay now preventing immediate notification of the civic polls, Adhikari has indicated that the government will seek relief from the Supreme Court.

Until either the pending single-bench case is decided or a higher court modifies the order, the State Election Commission cannot proceed with issuing the KMC poll notification based on the revised 209-ward structure.