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Left march to SMC seeks civic elections

“The state government fears holding the polls as they do not believe in democracy. They won the Assembly elections and there were many factors that worked behind the results. It was not because of their performance. We will continue our movement to press for our demand,”

Left march to SMC seeks civic elections

CPIM leader Asok Bhattacharya (file photo)

Former Siliguri mayor and senior CPI-M leader Asok Bhattacharya has said that the state government fears civic body elections, even as the Left Front marched to the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), demanding immediate polls today.

Left leaders said elections to around 112 civic bodies had remained pending, including in Siliguri, for more than a year. The state government has appointed a four-member Board of Administrators at the SM, headed by Gautam Deb, as its chairperson, “to handle and contain the grave situation due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic” in May.

“The state government fears holding the polls as they do not believe in democracy. They won the Assembly elections and there were many factors that worked behind the results. It was not because of their performance. We will continue our movement to press for our demand,” Mr Bhattacharya said today.

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This was the first significant political programme taken up by the Left in Siliguri after facing a defeat in the last Assembly elections. Mr Bhattacharya and the district Left Front convener, Jibesh Sarkar, further alleged nepotism and partisan politics in the Covid vaccination process.

According to Mr Bhattacharya, they had shown the ‘yellow card’ to the BoA to suggest that it had broken the rules and warned them. “After that, we will show them the red card that they had no right to stay, and leave the ground,” he added.

Left activists staged an agitation outside the SMC office. A BoA member and immediate past president of the Darjeeling district Trinamul Congress (Plains) Ranjan Sarkar said the people had shown the ‘red card’ to Mr Bhattacharya in the Assembly elections. “Mr Bhattacharyaled civic board had paralysed the civic services in the last five years,” Mr Sarkar alleged.

Meanwhile, the state urban development and municipal affairs department has added more members to the SMC board of administration. Six TMC leaders, including five former ward councillors, have now been included in the Board.

The chairperson of the BoA, Gautam Deb, was leading a four-member board since May. Am order issued on 16 August stated that Debu Sengupta, Manik Dey, Ram Bhajan Mahato, Kamal Agarwal, Swapan Das and Srabani Dutta will be new members of the BoA. Former deputy mayor of the Left Front run previous civic board, Mr Mahato had joined the TMC from the RSP, along with Mr Agarwal, a former CPIM leader and member of mayor-in-council, on 12 May.

Mr Dey (ward 13), Mr Das (ward 30) and Ms Dutta (ward 14) had been Trinamul Congress councillors. Mr Sengupta is a ruling party leader of ward 18.

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