Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on Tuesday took control of Bhatpara municipality in West Bengal and elected Arun Bandhopadhay as its chairman.
This is significant because the municipality was the first civic body in the state to come under the control of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The civic body, which comes under the Barrackpore parliamentary constituency, came under saffron rule 12 days after 2019 Lok Sabha elections results were announced.
New chairman Arun Bandhopadhay said, “These are challenging times, but we are here for the development of the people and will work towards that. People of Bhatpara is tired of violence unleashed by the BJP since March 23. People want peace and our party will ensure that.”
BJP’s victory in the Lok Sabha polls had led to clashes in various locations.
The violence was centred around Bhatpara in the North 24 Parganas district, where at least 10 people died, and more than a dozen were injured, including policemen.
Days after the Lok Sabha election results were declared, hundreds of councillors, also known corporators, from various municipalities joined the BJP. About five TMC MLAs and one CPI(M) MLA also joined the saffron party.
The BJP won the majority and took control of municipalities of Nahihati, Kanchrapara, Halisahar, Garulia, Bhatpara, and Bongaon. By taking control over Bhatpara, TMC has regained its majority and formed the board in all the five municipalities.
Speaking to The Wire, TMC MLA from Panihati, Nirmal Ghosh, who is also the party in-charge of Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat, said, “After successfully proving majority, we elected the chairman of the municipality today.”
Ghosh further said that after the defeat of Dinesh Trivedi from the Barrackpore LS seat, BJP’s Arjun Singh had “unleashed violence in the area.”
“Our party went door-to-door and spoke to people of Bhatpara and brought back normalcy in the area. Today, BJP lost all grounds in Barrackpore.”
Arjun Singh had been the chairman of Bhatpara municipality, but after winning the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat, he vacated and made his nephew Sourav Singh the chairman.
Speaking to The Wire, the BJP MP from Barrackpore said “We (BJP) can prove majority. But before the voting date, TMC got an order from the division bench of Calcutta high court and formed the board. We will appeal against this to the Supreme Court.”
Karthik Mondal, a TMC councillor from Bongaon Municipality, who had defected to BJP and later rejoined TMC said, “Some leaders created an environment that forced us to join BJP. Within months’ time, we understood our mistakes and returned to TMC.” Mondal was one of the hundreds who joined the saffron party at its Delhi headquarter.
Also read: As BJP and Trinamool Fight It Out, Who Will Save Bengal from Political Violence?
Later, Mondal along with Abhijit Kaupria, Himadri Mondal, Dilip Muzumder and Shampa Mahato returned to the TMC fold.
In November last year, TMC sprung back to life with victories in all three assembly constituencies that went to by-polls in West Bengal. The victory was significant as TMC won Kharagpur (Urban) seat. BJP Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh was the MLA from Kharagpur (Urban), who vacated after winning the Kharagpur parliamentary seat.
With only a few months left for the civic polls in West Bengal, poll strategist Prashant Kishor held a meeting with several political leaders of TMC to chalk out a plan for the election. Last month, he met councillors of Kolkata Corporation which was attended by the TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.
A senior executive from Kishor’s firm, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) told The Wire on condition of anonymity: “TMC leaders were asked to increase the visibility on the ground. They were asked to organise small meetings in their area. A new campaign is likely to come up for the civic body election, for which initial discussions are on.”
Himadri Ghosh is a Kolkata-based journalist.