The BJP took control of the Englishbazar municipality in Malda on Wednesday after 11 Trinamool Congress councillors declared themselves independent and supported the election of BJP MLA Amlan Bhaduri as chairman of the civic body.
Bhaduri, who represents the Englishbazar Assembly seat and is the BJP’s chief whip in the West Bengal Assembly, was elected unanimously at a meeting of the municipality’s board of councillors. The meeting was attended by the 11 councillors who had left the Trinamool fold, as well as 10 other Trinamool councillors.
The change comes a day after the BJP secured the post of Malda zilla parishad head despite having only four seats in the rural local body. The developments have altered the political balance in Malda’s urban and district-level institutions.
The Englishbazar municipality has 29 elected seats. In the 2022 civic elections, the Trinamool Congress won 25 seats, while the BJP secured three and an Independent won one. One Trinamool councillor died last year, while three councillors were absent from Wednesday’s meeting.
The political shift began on Wednesday morning when the 11 Trinamool councillors, including sitting vice-chairperson Sumala Agarwala, met Sambhudwip Sarkar, the Sub-Divisional Officer of Malda Sadar, and declared themselves independent. Bhaduri, who had been the leader of the Opposition in the municipality, was subsequently positioned to take over as chairman.
“There is no drama. We have only three councillors in the Englishbazar municipality. Since the post of chairman was vacant, the vice-chairperson convened a meeting to elect the new chairman,” Bhaduri said after taking charge. He said his name was proposed and seconded by Sutapa Mukherjee and Krishna Nath, the BJP’s two other municipal councillors, and that no alternative candidate was put forward.
Bhaduri said his priorities would include abolishing what he described as undesirable taxes imposed during the Trinamool regime and removing illegal constructions. He said the BJP wanted to provide better local governance and that taking control of the civic body was necessary to pursue those plans.
The new chairman also said the BJP would not offer special concessions to the Trinamool councillors who had declared themselves independent. “We do not promise them anything. They did not oppose my candidature as EBM chairman voluntarily,” he said. Bhaduri added that a new vice-chairperson and leader of the Opposition would be elected later according to the rules.
Agarwala said the councillors had distanced themselves from the Trinamool Congress because of factionalism and confusion within the party. She said they would support the new chairman’s development plans. Gayatri Ghosh, a Trinamool councillor who remains with the party, said the party’s councillors had attended the meeting but lacked the numbers to elect the chairman after 11 members elected on its ticket defected.
