Hakim to contest from ward 82

Kolkata: Firhad Hakim will contest from ward 82 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), where the by-election will be held on January 6, 2019.

The seat fell vacant after the sitting councillor Pranab Biswas resigned last week on health grounds.

In the 14 civic boards, Trinamool Congress originally had 122 councillors, followed by Left Front having 14 councillors, with BJP and Congress having 5 and 2 councillors respectively.

Now, Trinamool Congress has 121 councillors as Sailen Dasgupta, the councillor of ward 117 died and the by-election for the seat will be held on December 16.

The amended KMC Act 1980 stipulates that a non-councillor can become Mayor, but the person will have to contest and win a by-election within 6 months of taking over as the Mayor.

It may be mentioned that when the KMC board with Mayor-in-Council system was introduced in 1985, there were four aldermen, two from Left Front and two from Congress.

The Left Front nominees were Kamal Basu of CPI(M), who was the Mayor from 1985 to 1990 and Parimal Routh of RSP.

Congress had two nominees, namely Subimal Mitra and Anil Mukherjee. Left Front amended this provision in the KMC Act, 1980, as it did not want Kamal Basu to continue as the Mayor.

The amendment came when the then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu was in England.

The by-election will be a cakewalk for Hakim, who hails from Chetla, where he was elected in 2000 as a councillor. Later, he became Member, Mayor-in-Council (Roads).