BJP councillors of Bongaon Municipality move Calcutta HC for chairman's removal

A section of BJP councillors of the Bongaon Municipality in West Bengal approached the Calcutta High Court on Thursday seeking to move a petition for removal of the civic body's chairman.

The court granted them leave and directed that the matter will be heard on Friday.

Debjani Dagupta, the counsel for the councillors, said a petition praying for an order of the municipality chairman's removal has been filed in the registry.

Claiming that most of the councillors in the 22-member Bongaon Municipality passed a resolution expressing no-confidence in its chairman Shankar Addhya, the petitioners also sought an order of injunction on his functioning as the head of the body till disposal of the petition.

Dasgupta said that the high court had earlier given them liberty to move a no-confidence motion against the chairman as per statutory provisions of West Bengal Municipalities Procedure and Conduct Rules, 1995.

Eleven BJP councillors gave representation to the sub-divisional officer of Bongaon and district magistrate of North 24 Parganas stating that they were going to hold a meeting of no-confidence as per the direction of the high court on July 16.

They were, however, prevented from entering the municipality office premises by the police and people owing allegiance to Trinamool Congress on the appointed date, Dasgupta said.

"Later in the day they were able to hold the meeting and voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against the TMC chairman by a majority of 11 to 10 votes," she said.

The councillors claimed that despite having lost the confidence vote, the chairman was illegally holding the post and the BJP-affiliated councillors were being prevented from entering the civic body office.

The petitioners prayed for an order directing adoption of the resolution to remove Addhya as chairman or for holding the motion anew.

In the plea, the BJP councillors also prayed for an interim injunction that Addhya cannot function as chairman till disposal of the matter before the high court.

Bongaon, a town along the Indo-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas district, witnessed violent scenes on Tuesday with the TMC and BJP supporters clashing with each other in front of the municipality office.

Both the parties claimed to have won the trust vote. The administration has, however, not yet declared the results of the vote.