The eight month-old honeymoon between Congress and Trinamool Congress in Bengal received a jolt on Thursday with Congress defeating the TMC candidate for the Siliguri mayor and chairman’s post with all the Left Front’s councilors voting for Congress.
The Congress’ mayoral candidate Gangotri Dutta got 32 votes, including all of the Left Front’s 17 votes.
The TMC’s 50-year old mayoral candidate, Gautam Deb, got only 15.
The results stunned TMC with its supremo Mamata Banerjee (54) describing the event as “an unholy nexus”.
In the 47-member board of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Congress had bagged 15 seats while TMC won 14 seats apart from an
independent candidate. Both the parties staked claim for the Mayor’s post and till Wednesday evening dialogue was on between both parties to settle the matters through dialogue.
As the news spread, thousands of anti-Left voters thronged the roads of Siliguri, 500 km from Kolkata.