TMC councillor resigns, cites failure to get party enough votes from ward

Kolkata: Despite the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate for Kolkata North Sudip Banerjee bagging the Lok Sabha seat, a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) councillor from his party tendered his resignation for failing to get his party candidate a lead in votes from his ward.

The councillor Vijay Upadhyay from Ward 20 (Muktaram Babu Street) on Friday resigned from his post. On Friday, he tendered his resignation with party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

He regretted his inability for failing to get his party candidate Sudip Banerjee a vote lead from his ward. In his letter, he wrote that he regrets that he was only able to make Sudip win from his ward with a vote margin of 217. This time things weren’t so easy for Sudip but he managed to secure the seat he has been winning since 2009. He won with a lead of 92560 vote lead and garnered a total of 454696 votes compared to Tapas Roy of BJP who got 362136 votes. As part of its strategy ahead of the election, TMC focused on a coordinated approach between party councillors and block committee workers. TMC MLA of Kolkata Port Assembly seat and KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim had met his party’s councillors in a city hotel for a briefing relating to election campaign work.

It was learnt that clear instructions were given to ensure that the BJP trails in every ward. In the last 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was leading in at least 26 wards,

it was learnt.