TMC hopeful of regaining control of Bongaon municipality

The Trinamool Congress on Monday exuded confidence of regaining control of Bongaon municipality, that it had lost to BJP due to defection of its councillors, and accussed the BJP of trying to threaten its elected representatives there.

The BJP was quick to hit back, alleging it was Trinamool Congress which was threatening the councillors, who had switched over to saffron party, with dire consequences if they didn't return to the party fold.

The war of words between the two followed a Calcutta High Court order during the day which set aside a vote of confidence held at Bongaon Municipality on its chairman last month and ordered to carry a fresh process to decide his fate.

The court on Monday directed that a fresh vote of confidence be held within 12 days at the office of the district magistrate of North 24 Parganas.

"We are confident of regaining the control of Bongoan municipality. We had the majority but BJP threatened and forced our councillors to join BJP. Later on the councillors returned to us as they couldn't accept the culture of BJP," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee told reporters here.

Reacting to Chatterjee's claim, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said if a trust vote is held in a free and fair manner, the BJP would win.

The Bongoan municipality had witnessed a lot of drama since the Lok Sabha poll results after majority of the 22 councillor strong Bongaon municipality switched over to BJP. Initially TMC had 21 counciullors and CPI(M) one.

But, after the Lok Sabha poll results, 11 TMC crossed over to the BJP camp and brought a no confidence motion against the Chairman. The BJP thus gained effective control of the municipality.

But, within a month, four of its councillors, who had defected to the BJP, returned to the party fold, taking Trinamool Congress strength from 10 to 14.

The TMC held a trust vote on July 16 and claimed to have got hold of the civic body with the support of the lone Congress councillor.

The 11 BJP councillors, however, could not attend the trust vote as they were allegedly locked up inside the civic body office. Later, the saffron party moved the Calcutta High Court against the trust vote claiming that they have the majority.