Trinamool Congress lawmaker Sabyasachi Dutta resigned from his post of the Salt Lake Mayor on Thursday.
Yesterday, the Calcutta High Court had quashed the notification of no confidence motion against him on grounds that it was against the rules. A fresh no-trust motion was expected to be issued by the chairperson of the municipal body, but even before that Dutta resigned in a rather surprising and dramatic move.
The vote of no confidence against him was scheduled to be held at Salt Lake municipality on Thursday, but it got stalled due to the High Court order.
For several months now, the Trinamool Congress leadership was peeved over various allegations of anti-party activities indulged in by Dutta. Various complaints of anti-party activity had been submitted with the Trinamool leadership against Dutta. He had been constantly meeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy publicly.
However, after Dutta’s outburst a few weeks back against state minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in connection with a political programme outside Salt Lake’s Bidyut Bhavan, the senior Trinamool Congress leadership had no other option but to openly criticise him.
Municipal and Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim held a meeting with all municipal commissioners, but without Dutta. Sabyasachi Dutta was subsequently asked to resign from the Mayor’s post. But he put his foot down.
Following this, Surajit Ghosh, deputy commissioner of the municipality, on behalf of the commissioner (who was then on leave) issued a notification of no-trust motion against Dutta. The councillors were scheduled to vote for or against the Mayor on Thursday, but he moved court alleging the notification had been issued without following municipal rules. The Court ruled in favour of Dutta yesterday.
Speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon, Dutta said that he had decided to step down as he was not being able to work properly as Mayor. He sent his resignation to the chairperson of the municipality.
