Jyotirmoy Kar is chairman of Digha- Shankarpur Development Authority

Kolkata: Jyotirmoy Kar has been appointed as the chairman of Digha- Shankarpur Development Authority (DSDA).

A notification in this regard was issued by the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department on Friday. Earlier, Sisir Adhikari was the chairman of DSDA. He was removed after his son Suvendu joined BJP on December 19, 2020, and Akhil Giri was appointed as the new chairman. Giri is now the state Fisheries minister.

Kar, who was the TMC candidate from Contai South seat, lost to his BJP rival in 2021 Assembly elections.

Political experts said appointment of Kar as DSDA chairman would put Suvendu into further trouble as the former was never in the good books of the Adhikari family.

In the past one decade Trinamool Congress had failed to get a new leader from East Midnapore because of the political control of the Adhikari family. Not only Sisir Adhikari and his son Dibyendu were TMC MPs, his son and daughter-in-law were chairman and councillor of Contai municipality. But the real string was in the hands of Suvendu. He used to exercise a lot of control and whenever any leader tried to oppose the Adhikari family, Suvendu used to defame him by spreading canard against him.

Political experts also opine that the appointment of Akhil Giri as the Fisheries minister and Kar as DSDA chairman, Suvendu's earning would be badly hit. Suvendu, whose invisible hands play a major role in any business that comes up in Digha-Shankarpur-Haldia belt, will receive a major jolt and in the next few months there will be a mass exodus from his camp to TMC, the experts felt.

When contacted, Kar said: "I will discharge my duties sincerely and will try to save the area from the clutches of a family."