Thursday, January 19 2006 16:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Left Front major, the Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) today (Jan 19,2006) welcomed Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon's assurance that the assembly election in West Bengal would not be deferred and charged the opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress of hatching a 'conspiring' for its deferment on the pretext of irregularities in the electoral rolls.

''We hail Tandon's statement and thank him that assembly polls will not be deferred and will be held in time,'' CPI(M) politburo member and state secretary of the party Anil Biswas said.

Alleging that both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress had 'plotted' to ensure deferment of the elections on the pretext of existence of bogus voters on the electoral rolls, Biswas said the CEC's assurance had shown that the poll panel had given 'due respect' to parliamentary democracy'.

''People of West Bengal will now repose more faith on the Election Commission,'' Biswas, who had only recently assailed the EC on the apprehension of seeking to defer the assembly polls and threatened of a 'mass upsurge', told reporters here.

He said that the CPI(M) had all along been stating that the assembly election in the state should be held in time, 'and the chief election commissioner's statement has cleared it further.'