Bengal’s Chandernagore civic body set to be dissolved as majority Trinamool councilors resign

Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress-run Chandernagore Municipal Corporation (CMC) in West Bengal’s Hooghly district is set to be dissolved after a majority of its councillors resigned over the past 24 hours.

The CMC is likely to be the first elected urban civic body in the state to be dissolved following the resignation of a majority of the councilors belonging to the political party that controlled the board since the regime change in West Bengal.

The CMC has a total of 33 councilors, out of which 31 are from Trinamool Congress and only two are from the CPI(M) camp.

As of Saturday morning, 30 out of the 31 Trinamool Congress councillors have tendered their resignations, effectively paving the way for the dissolution of the current board of the urban civic body.

Those who resigned include the Mayor of CMC, Ram Chakraborty. The resignations began on Friday afternoon when six Trinamool Congress councilors stepped down, followed by 24 more on Saturday morning.

All of them emailed their resignations to the CMC chairperson and commissioner. The development has raised concerns over the functioning of the corporation and the delivery of basic civic services to residents.

Ram Chakraborty said that following the instructions from the state’s municipal affairs and urban development department for CMC’s expenditure audit, the financial freedom of the municipal corporation authorities has been curtailed to a great extent.

“So, naturally, we are apprehensive that providing civic amenities to the citizens under CMC will be adversely impacted. So, considering all these aspects, we have decided to resign,” Chakraborty added.

In the recently concluded West Bengal assembly polls, the sitting Trinamool Congress legislator from Hooghly and former West Bengal Minister, Indranil Sen, also an actor-turned politician, got defeated by BJP’s Deepanjan Kumar Guha by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

After the defeat, Indranil Sen withdrew from politics, reportedly creating uncertainties among the Trinamool Congress councilors in the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation.

–IANS

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