Five more councillors return to Trinamool from BJP
KOLKATA: The five Trinamool councillors of Kanchrapara municipality, who were taken to BJP’s national headquarters in Delhi on May 28 where they joined the saffron camp, have returned to the fold of the ruling party on Thursday. Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim said the Trinamool presently has a strength of 10 councillors out of 23 and three more elected representatives are expected to join the party shortly.
About three days ago, eight councillors of Halisahar municipality, who joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of the senior leader of the saffron camp Mukul Roy, had also returned to the Trinamool. A group of 58 councillors from Halisahar, Kanchrapara, Naihati and Bhatpara municipalities went to BJP’s Delhi office and joined the party. Roy had claimed the BJP secured majority at the four civic bodies as the majority of the councillors extended their support to the saffron party.
“All these councillors were threatened and forced to join the BJP. They regained their courage to protest against the BJP’s atrocities and decided to return to their old political party. In future, more councillors will join the Trinamool,” said Hakim.
Roy’s son Subhrangshu, who is the MLA from Bijpur Assembly constituency where Halisahar and Kanchrapara municipalities are located, said, “Time will tell who will form the boards in the two civic bodies. We will wait and watch.’’
In another political development, Roy visited the residence of Sabyasachi Dutta, the mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, who is set to face a no-confidence motion on July 18, on Thursday afternoon and held a meeting with him that continued for over 45 minutes.
“I have come to meet Dutta because I know him for a long time. A no-confidence motion has been brought against him and we have discussed the strategies that Dutta needs to follow,’’ said Roy after coming out of Dutta’s house. Asked whether Dutta is joining the BJP, Roy said, “The issue was not discussed in the meeting.”
Mamata diktat to MLAs
In her first meeting with the MLAs since the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the legislators to rectify themselves if they have committed any mistake. “If you have done anything wrong, rectify yourself immediately.
Face people in your constituency. Do not avoid them,’’ Mamata instructed her MLAs. She also asked the MLAs to send names of four youths from each of their segment who have skills in dealing with social networking sites