Arun Bandyopadhyay takes over as new chief of Bhatpara municipality

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress councillor of ward 25 Arun Bandyopadhyay was elected as the chairman of Bhatpara municipality in North 24-Parganas on Tuesday. The senior TMC leader was elected two weeks after the party had wrested control of the civic body from BJP.

"Our challenge is to restart regular services for the common people that were stalled for the last few months. The employees were not getting their salaries, pensions, and allowances properly. My priority will be to hold talks with the state government and ensure that their payments are regularised," Bandyopadhyay said after being appointed the new chairman of the municipality.

On January 7, TMC had won a no-confidence motion against the municipality's former chairman and BJP leader Sourav Singh by a margin of 19-0. Sources in the municipality said that three names were proposed by TMC for the post of chairman– councillors of ward number 23 and 24 Satyen Roy and Hemangshu Sarkar respectively and Arun Bandyopadhyay, who represented ward number 25.

State Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick who is also the district president of the party in the district congratulated Bandyopadhyay and said: "The new chairman is hard-working and I am confident that the municipality will regain its lost pride."

Currently, the TMC has 19 councillors in the civic body, the BJP 12, the Congress and the CPI(M) one each and an Independent member. The 34-member Bhatpara municipality became the first victim of BJP's muscle-flexing after the result of the Lok Sabha elections which was declared in May 2019.

At the time, twenty-six councillors had joined the BJP. However, of these 26 turncoats, who had joined BJP, 12 rejoined the TMC in November last year. Later seven more rejoined.

Trinamool had already regained its control over six municipalities in North 24-Parganas from BJP, namely Halisahar, Kanchrapara, Bongaon, Garulia, Naihati and Haringhata.