TMC leaders to gauge voter reaction post poll results in North 24-Pgns

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leaders and workers will go to the voters in North 24-Parganas to take cognizance of their opinion following the poll debacle.

Reacting sharply to the Trinamool MLAs and councillors joining BJP, state Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim said: "Those who left the party have done so out of pressure. Even Mukul Roy had left out of pressure. These people do not have any respect for ideology. When any problem crops up, the rats are the

first to jump into the sea without

realising what the consequences will be."

Party district president Jyotipriya Mallick, along with the senior leaders held a meeting to analyse the post-poll scenario in North 24-Parganas, where Trinamool has lost the Lok Sabha seats of Bongaon and Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas.

Mallick said the leaders have been forced to join BJP 'at gunpoint'. He assured that the party would do well in the 2021 Assembly elections. "Remember we had only one MP in 2004 and from there the party consolidated its position. We are all working together with Mamata Banerjee," he said.

Veteran party leader Tapas Roy said the election was held not on the basis of development, but on communal lines and the air strike at Balakot. "This is for the first time that polling in Bengal was held on communal lines. It is most unfortunate," Roy said.

Meanwhile, BJP took control over four municipalities in North 24-Parganas after the Trinamool Congress councillors joined the party. In Bhatpara, 19 out of 34 Trinamool councillors have joined in BJP. In Halisahar, 17 out of 23 councillors have joined BJP, including its chairman and vice-chairman. In Kanchrapara, 17 out of 24 councillors have joined BJP including its chairman and vice-chairman, while in Naihati, 29 out of 31 councillors have joined BJP.

Rabindranath Chatterjee, chairman of the Trinamool controlled Katwa municipality, lodged complaint against three Trinamool councillors after they pelted glasses and bottles at him. The councillors demanded Chatterjee's resignation as the BJP candidate in his ward took a lead over Trinamool's contender in the Lok Sabha election.

Chatterjee said the accused councillors will join BJP and they had been trying to prepare ground to quit the party. They had not joined the board meeting of the municipality for the past three months.