TMC wrests control of Jhalda Municipality from Congress

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) has wrested control of Jhalda Municipality from Congress after four councillors of the grand old party, along with the chairperson of the civic body, joined the TMC.

All five members of the municipal body switched camps to TMC on Wednesday night. The members include the chairperson Shila Chatterjee, and councillors Bijoy Kandu, Mithun Kandu (nephew of deceased former councillor Tapan Kandu), Pintu Chandra and Somnath Karmakar. They were handed TMC flags by the party MLA of Baghmundi, Sushanta Mahato. The MLA stated that the said persons wished to work for development under the leadership of his party chairperson and state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He also claimed that these Congress workers were inducted into the party following protocols.

Congress had wrested control of the Jhalda Municipality after a protracted legal battle with TMC in the Calcutta High Court whose order helped Shila Chatterjee to assume the position of the chairperson in the municipality.

The Congress councillor Tapan Kandu was shot dead by assailants following the municipal elections.

However, Congress alleged that TMC kept on attempting to engineer defection so that it could regain control of the civic body. It was alleged that some of the Congress councillors were even taken to Kolkata to make them switch camps. Jhalda Municipality had 12 seats. Following the present defection, TMC now has 10 councillors while the Congress has two.

The development has further strained the relationship between TMC and Congress in the state at a time when both parties are trying to remain on the same boat at the national level, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, under the banner of the INDIA bloc.