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4 Bengal civic bodies hung after TMC dissidents win seats as independents
The Bengal civic boy polls results showed that it will be impossible for any party to form civic boards at Beldanga (Murshidabad district), Egra (East Midnapore), Champdani (Hooghly) and Jhalda (Purulia) without the support of the independent candidates.
KOLKATA: The dissident Trinamool Congress (TMC) members who caused concern for the leadership last month by filing nomination against official candidates in the Bengal municipal elections continued to trouble the party on Wednesday after winning more than 100 seats across the state.
Although their victory did not affect the TMC in most places, there was no clear verdict at 4 of the 108 municipalities that went to the polls on February 27. The TMC swept in 102 municipalities while the Left wrested one and the newly launched Hamro Party won in Darjeeling town.
The results showed that it will be impossible for any party to form civic boards at Beldanga in Murshidabad district, Egra (East Midnapore), Champdani (Hooghly) and Jhalda (Purulia) without the support of the independent candidates.
At Jhalda, the TMC saw an opportunity to form the board after an independent candidate, who was not part of the party in the past, offered to join it. The remaining 3 municipalities faced a stalemate.
Primarily seen as a discord between the TMC’s youth and old brigade, the divisions surfaced on February 4 when two lists of candidates for elections to the state’s 112 civic bodies were released. Polls at 4 of these civic bodies were held on February 4 and the TMC won.
The list approved by chief minister Mamata Banerjee was physically released by the party. The controversial list was uploaded almost simultaneously on the party’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Discrepancies in around 150 of 2,270 names in the two lists triggered agitations in 19 Bengal districts. Although the controversial list was removed from the social media pages on February 13, many of those named in it did not withdraw their nomination.
On February 17, the TMC sent a strong message to the rank and file when it started suspending and expelling party members who did not withdraw nominations filed against the party’s official candidates
Since the state election commission’s deadline for withdrawing nominations ended in the second week of February, the dissidents were asked to give it in writing that they were quitting the race in support of the official candidates. TMC state secretary general Partha Chatterjee announced that the ‘independent’ candidates would be summarily expelled if they defy the order. The expulsions would be effective even if they won, Chatterjee said.
Of the 2,270 seats that went to the polls, the dissidents finally contested around 100, defying the warning.
On Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee said her party’s state committee will take a decision on the rebel candidates.
Asked whether they would be taken back into the TMC, she said, “This decision will be taken later by the party.”
The chief minister left for Varanasi in the afternoon to campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Partha Chatterjee refused to speak on the subject, saying the chief minister had clarified the party’s stand.
Most of the rebels who won said they owed their allegiance to Banerjee.
“I was always with the TMC. I never left. Mamata Banerjee is my idol,” said Akbar Ali, a rebel who won at Srirampore in Hooghly district.
