Murshidabad Zilla Parishad gets new sabhadhipati

Baidyanath Das on Wednesday was elected as the sabadhipati of Murshidabad Zilla Parishad.

Members of the Congress and Left Front did not take part in the election, and the Congress is planning to move to the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court alleging faulty election procedure.

The state Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari and Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy were present at the function. TMC Zilla Parishad members said they would work together for all-round development of the area.

The Zilla Parishad, along with seven municipalities of the district, came under the control of TMC recently. Talking after the appointment of Das as sabhadhipati, Adhikari said: “The members are attracted by the development schemes taken up by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Zilla Parishad members will work together to fulfil her dream,” he said.

It may be mentioned that Banerjee had held an administrative review meeting in the district at the end last month. She announced funds of around Rs 800 crore for various development projects, including Rs 439 crore for a master plan for Kandi Municipality.

The 150-year-old Kandi Municipality was last to come under Trinamool. The Zilla Parishad members on Wednesday said they had spoken to the people of the area and felt that proper development would take place under Trinamool.

Congress’ collapse in Murshidabad is the result of Banerjee’s idea that the political career of a leader would depend solely on the development of the area. Murshidabad was the fiefdom of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Within four months of its victory in the Assembly election in May, TMC made crucial inroads into the district.

Trinamool had won only one seat in Murshidabad in the 2011 Assembly election, but increased it to 4 in 2016. When the election was held, six municipalities and the Zilla Parishad were ruled by Congress and Trinamool only had Dhuliyan Municipality.

Banerjee asked Adhikari to look after the district and carry out large scale development work. Development became her slogan in the 2016 election, as Adhikari went on working in the area, winning four seats for the party.

Congress could not check the massive erosion of support base in the district. The Congress-Left alliance got only 66 seats. After the results were out, Congress and CPI(M) leaders started contacting Trinamool leaders, which culminated in Murshidabad eventually going to TMC.

Meanwhile, Adhir Chowdhury claimed that Trinamool got control of the Zilla Parishad “in the most undemocratic way and people will not forgive them.”