The Trinaul Congress on Thursday asked its local leaders who have filed nominations as independents for polls to 108 civic bodies, after being denied tickets, to withdraw their candidature within 48 hours or face expulsion.

Elections to the 108 municipalities in the state will be held on February 27.

"Despite our repeated reminders, some of our party leaders in districts have not withdrawn their nominations for the municipal elections. They have been seeking votes in their localities. People can have ambitions, but not at the cost of the party discipline".

"We are giving an ultimatum to such leaders to announce withdrawal from the contest within 48 hours, failing which they will be expelled from the respective district committees", TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee told reporters in Jhargram.

The TMC has already suspended and expelled a few leaders in some districts, party sources said. Earlier in the week, senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim had issued a similar statement, urging the independent candidates to pull out of the electoral fray.

The contestants, on their part, have claimed that they were being asked to file nominations as independents by the people after failing to make it to the official candidates' list, and that the sentiments of the masses cannot be ignored.

Some of the rebel TMC candidates are contesting in Englishbazar, Old Malda, Balurghat, Coochbehar, Burdwan, Barasat, Sonarpur-Rajpur, Bongaon, and Khardah municipalties.

In December last year, West Bengal's ruling TMC stormed back to power in the 144-member strong Kolkata Municipal Corporation for the third consecutive time, bagging 132 seats. It also made a clean sweep in the polls to Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Chandernagore and Asansol municipalities.