The absence of the district president of the youth wing of the Trinamul Congress in the annual party conference of the Alipurduar Town Block Trinamul Congress Committee has sparked a controversy.

More than 5000 party activists from all across the town attended the conference on Friday at the Jain Bhawan in the town, it is learnt. Alipurduar district Trinamul President Mohan Sharma, Alipurduar MLA Sourav Chakraborty, and Chairman of the Alipurduar Municipality Ashish Dutta, along with other district and block leaders of the party attended the conference.

However, surprisingly, the district president of the Alipurduar District Trinamul Youth Congress Committee, Samar Bhattacharjee, did not show up at the conference. Alipurduar Town Block Trinamul President Dipta Chattapadhya refused to comment on Mr Bhattacharjee’s absence.

“It is a matter of the party. I would not like to comment on the matter. The conference was a great success and all the district leaders are happy with the huge gathering,” he said. “In the conference, we prepared a blue print of the fight we will be giving to our opposition in the coming municipality elections to be held next year,” Mr Chattapadhaya added.

Meanwhile, Mr Bhattacharjee said he failed to attend the conference because he was out of town. “I am busy working for the coming panchayat elections in the district,” he said, when contacted.

“People of Alipurduar town will find me everywhere in the town during the coming municipality elections,” he added. According to party sources, there is a rift between the town lobby of the party and the district youth president and that Mr Bhattacharjee has been avoiding party programmes in the town since the past few months.

Notably, the district conference of the party will be held at the Jubilee play ground at Birpara in the district tomorrow. State sports and youth minister Aroop Biswas, who is the party observer for Alipurduar district, will be present in the conference.

North Bengal Development Minister Rabindranath Ghosh, tourism minister Gautam Deb, and Tribal Development Minister James Kujur are scheduled to be present in the conference. Alipurduar district president of the Trinamul Congress, Mohan Sharma, was not available to comment on the matter.