Firhad Hakim to hold councillors' meet next week to select Mayor

Kolkata: Firhad Hakim, the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister, will sit with the councillors of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) next week to select the Mayor.

Sabyasachi Dutta recently resigned after the councillors moved a no-confidence motion against him for his anti-party activities.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Krishna Chakraborty, chairperson of the BMC, Tapas Chatterjee, Deputy Mayor and Debashis Jana, a senior BMC councillor at Nabanna and discussed the steps that should be taken to resolve the impasse. Firhad Hakim was also present in the meeting.

It was decided that he would meet the councillors next week to select the Mayor.

Some councillors have expressed their reservation over the appointment of Tapas Chatterjee as the Mayor. Chatterjee was an active member of the CPI(M) and was the chairman of Rajarhat Gopalpur municipality. In 2011, Chatterjee contested in the Assembly elections with a CPI(M) ticket from Rajarhat-New Town constituency and was defeated by Sabyasachi Dutta. After Chatterjee joined the Trinamool Congress, differences with Dutta came out in the open. There had been stormy meetings of the Mayor-in-Council members. On July 1, Dutta refused to share the dais with Chatterjee to commemorate the birth and death anniversary of Dr BC Roy which was organised by the BMC.