Hung civic boards: 'Local Trinamool Congress leaders to decide fate of Independent candidates'

KOLKATA: Local Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders will decide the fate of the Independent candidates in four municipalities, where civic boards could not be set up as they remained hung, Kunal Ghosh, state secretary of TMC said on Thursday.

Ghosh said while the local leaders would decide the fate of the Independent candidates in the municipalities where no clear cut result has been achieved by any political party. The state committee of TMC will decide the fate of Independent candidates in other municipalities. Altogether, at least 116 independent candidates have been elected.

The civic boards could not be set up in four municipalities, namely, Beldanga in Murshidabad, Champdani in Hooghly, Egra in East Midnapore and Jhaldah in Purulia.

In Champdani Municipality, out of 22 seats, TMC candidates have bagged 11 seats while the independent candidates have got 10 seats and Congress got one seat. In Beldanga Municipality, out of 14 wards, Trinamool got seven seats followed by independent candidates with 4 seats and BJP 3 seats.

In Egra Municipality, out of 14 seats, TMC got 7 seats while the BJP got 5 seats and Independent and Congress candidates got one seat each.

In Jhalda Municipality, out of 12 seats, TMC and Congress got 5 seats each while independent candidates got 2 seats. Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee had said on Wednesday that the "issue would be resolved by the state committee of the party." The party has given the local leaders the power to resolve their issues.