Krishna Chakraborty – the current chairperson Salt Lake municipality – is set to be the next Mayor.
Sabyasachi Dutta had stepped down from the post of Mayor on July 18. Administrative work of the Bidhannagar municipality has been affected for quite some time now due to the clashes between the senior leadership of Trinamool Congress leaders and Dutta.
Dutta has been openly criticising the party and meeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy for months now. This has upset the senior leadership of the party, who have repeatedly asked him to avoid meeting Roy. There are talks that Dutta might join the BJP, but he hasn’t confirmed this. On the contrary, he says he is dedicated to the Trinamool Congress.
Trinamool Congress councillors had prepared to bring a no trust vote against Dutta earlier this month, and accordingly a notification had been issued. However, Dutta moved Calcutta High Court against the method of issuing the notification and got a verdict in his favour. Following this, he stepped down as Mayor on his own even before a no confidence motion could be moved against him.
Several names have been doing the rounds for the municipality top slot, including the name of deputy mayor Tapas Chattopadhyay. But he is said to have detractors, as he had been chairperson of Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality during the Left Front rule. He later joined the Trinamool Congress. The Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality was combined with the Salt Lake municipality.
Salt Lake Mayor-in-council Debasish Jana had openly opposed Chattopadhyay’s name as Mayor. He said that he would speak at the appropriate party level regarding the appointment.
Other names doing the rounds were that of councillors Debraj Chakraborty and Anita Mondal. However, Trinamool sources said that a meeting was called at Nabanna a couple of days back in which chief minister Mamata Banerjee, municipal affairs and urban development minister Firhad Hakim, deputy mayor of Salt Lake municipality Tapas Chattopadhyay and chairperson Krishna Chakraborty were present. She is said to have been told about her appointment as the next Salt Lake Mayor at that meeting.
Nothing has been made official however. Anita Mondal will be the new chairperson.
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