Gautam Deb to be Siliguri Mayor, Salt Lake Mayor not yet announced

After Trinamool Congress clearly swept the polls in Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Asansol and Chandannagar municipalities, party chief and state chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that Gautam Deb will be Mayor of Siliguri. However, the Mayor for the other three municipalities including Salt Lake is yet to be announced.

Before leaving Kolkata for Siliguri, Banerjee said: “Gautam Deb will be the Mayor of Siliguri. He is the senior-most.” However, she was not willing to disclose who will be Mayors of the other three civic bodies. Salt Lake in particular draws attention as there are two contenders – Krishna Chakraborty and Sabyasachi Dutta – for the post. Dutta had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and later returned to Trinamool Congress. A section of the party was apparently unhappy about Dutta being given a ticket for fighting elections as he had left Trinamool prior to the Assembly elections and “returned” later.

Banerjee said that the party will discuss the issue of selecting the Mayor and the council members and it will be announced later. She thanked the people of the state for “showing faith towards Trinamool Congress”. She said that her party workers will work with more humility in the coming days.

Results of all 227 wards are expected to be out by the end of the day. In Bidhannagar municipality, Trinamool is leading 39 of the 41 seats, in Siliguri Trinamool is leading 37 of the 47 seats, in Asansol municipality, Bengal’s ruling party is leading in 91 of the 106 seats, and in Chandannagar municipality, Trinamool is leading in 31 out of 33 seats. In some of these seats/wards, the Trinamool has already won.