Firhad Hakim elected as KMC Mayor, Atin Ghosh is his deputy
KOLKATA: Firhad Hakim and Atin Ghosh were unanimously elected as the leader and deputy leader in Kolkata Municipal Corporation by Trinamool Congress candidates on Thursday afternoon.
They will subsequently take oath as Mayor and Deputy Mayor on December 27. It was learnt that the councillors would take their oaths on Friday. Mala Roy, the party's Lok Sabha MP, will be made the chairman of KMC.
A meeting of Trinamool Congress was held at Maharashtra Niwas auditorium on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by party's chairperson Mamata Banerjee. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Firhad Hakim, Mala Roy, Tapas Roy and Shashi Panja attended the meeting along with 134 candidates, who had won the recently-concluded civic poll.
Dedicating the massive victory to the people, Banerjee said: "I thank Ma, Mati, Manus for supporting us. It is because of their unflinching support that we are here. It is they, who have made us what we are today. We should serve people with more humility." She said no lobbying and group politics would be tolerated. The TMC chairperson said the performance of the councillors would be reviewed every six months and those performing well will be given more opportunities. The TMC supremo cautioned that the non-performers will be taken to task. "Don't take this as a scolding, work seriously and those performing well will be given more responsibility while the non-performers will be pulled up," she said. About the induction of those, who had won as Independent candidates, Banerjee said: "Those who have backstabbed the party shall not be inducted immediately." Three women who had failed to fetch TMC tickets won as Independent candidates.
Banerjee said those who had lost would be given a chance to work on the civic board. She said out of 64 women candidates, 63 have won. Taking a bold step, Banerjee has named nine women councillors as chairpersons of borough committees. There are 16 borough committees. The women chairpersons are Shukla Bhor, Sadhana Basu, Rehana Khatoon, Sana Ahmed, Susmita Bhattacharya, Chaitali Chatterjee, Debolina Biswas, Jui Biswas, Ratna Sur and Sangita Das.
The men who have become borough chairpersons are Tarun Saha, Anindo Rauth, Tarakeshwar Chakraborty, Susanta Ghosh, Ranjit Seal and Sudip Polle.
Banerjee instructed the councillors to work more and talk less and make press statements carefully. "Do not indulge in loose talk. Do not project yourself above the party. There are some who always try to project themselves as more important than the party," she said.
Banerjee announced the names of the Mayor-in-Council members. They are Atin Ghosh, Debashis Kumar, Tarak Singh, Swapan Samaddar, Sandip Bakshi, Ram Peyare Ram, Jibon Saha, Baisanor Chatterjee, Mitali Banerjee, Sandipan Saha, Debabrata Majumdar and Abhijit Mukherjee.
