Minister Firhad Hakim will reach Siliguri on Tuesday to hold a meeting with the Trinamool Congress's representatives at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the neighbouring Jalpaiguri municipality to find out the cause of the party’s debacle in the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha segments.
Since 2009, the BJP has secured a majority in the SMC area — 33 wards of the civic body are in the Darjeeling constituency while the remaining 14 are in the Jalpaiguri segment. In the Jalpaiguri civic area, the BJP secured leads in the 2019 and 2024 general elections.
In the Parliament elections held this year, the BJP was ahead of Trinamool by around 66,000 votes in the Siliguri Assembly segment. In the Jalpaiguri Assembly segment, the BJP secured a lead of 25,534 votes.
“The TMC is in power in the Siliguri and the Jalpaiguri civic bodies. Also, a slew of developmental projects have been executed by these ULBs (urban local bodies) as well as the state government. Even then, the BJP secured leads in both towns. Firhad Hakim will talk to the elected representatives to know what has led to the gap,” said a Trinamool functionary.
Hakim, a senior Trinamool leader, heads the municipal affairs and urban development departments. Besides, he is Calcutta's mayor.
During his visit, the minister will also check out the progress of the mega drinking water project of the SMC.
“He will visit the locations where the work is going on and speak to engineers and others associated with the project,” Siliguri mayor Gautam Deb said.
In recent months, this will be the first time that the minister will visit the city to check out the work. The visit follows a water crisis which residents of Siliguri have faced as the civic body announced that the water it supplies across the city was not fit for drinking.
The mega drinking water project has been taken up under Amrut 2.0 with a project cost of Rs 511 crore. A Chennai-based company is executing the first phase of the project, which includes the construction of an intake well, five mini bridges and some other civil and electro-mechanical works, sources said.
