Raiganj municipality elections may be held in December

Raiganj: “Elections to the Raiganj municipality could be held in December this year. So we have started ground work in all 27 wards in the municipality. Very soon a coordination meeting will be held with the members of the board of administrators and the co-coordinators of different wards of the municipality for this purpose,” stated Krishna Kalyani, TMC MLA of Raiganj, addressing a felicitation programme at the Raiganj municipality on Sunday morning.

The last election of the Raiganj municipality was held in 2017. TMC had won in 25 wards and Congress bagged 2 wards out of total 27. TMC constituted the board and Sandip Biswas was made the Chairman.

Later two Congress councilors, Arun Roy of ward No 4 and Aniruddha Saha of ward No 14 joined TMC. After their joining there was no opponent left in the Raiganj municipality. In July 2022 the term of the board of the municipality ended. However, no fresh election was held thereafter . Since then the board of administrators are in charge of the municipality.

In the last Parliamentary elections, the TMC candidate was defeated by the BJP. The TMC lagged behind BJP in all 27 wards of Raiganj municipality. A section of TMC party workers were blamed for this defeat.

However, in the Raiganj assembly by-elections Krishna Kalyani was contested from the Raiganj seat. He won in 26 wards with a huge margin out of a total 27 in the municipality.

Krishna Kalyani said: “Recently I talked with Firhad Hakim, the Urban Development minister in Kolkata. He gave a hint that elections in Raiganj municipality may be held in December this year along with some other municipalities in the state. In the Raiganj assembly by elections this year we had a lead in 26 wards in Raiganj municipality. We lagged behind in only one ward. We have directed all the ward coordinators to stand by the residents in times of difficulty so that we can restrengthen our support base.”