Trinamul Congress registered a landslide victory, winning in 32 out of 35 seats in South Dumdum Municipality. There are two seats that they have lost to former party workers who contested as independent candidates.
Rita Roy Chowdhury Das of Ward 9 and Debasish Banerjee of Ward 15 are both former Trinamul leaders but they left the party when refused tickets for the civic polls. Both chose to contest as independent candidates and won. In Ward 9, Congress was the first runner up and in Ward 15 it was the Left Front.
Across the rest of the constituencies, the Left Front finished second in 24 wards, the BJP in six wards, the Congress in two and the TMC in one. An independent candidate — Sanjay Kumar Yadav — came second in Ward 7.
However, Ward 29 (Bangur Avenue) does not have a new councillor. In fact, the ward did not even go to polls, owing to a court case that is being fought since 2019.
Mriganka Bhattacharjee, former TMC councillor and currently a BJP leader, is at the heart of it though he says he did not file the case.
Bhattacharjee had been councillor in the South Dum Dum Municipality area off and on since 1984 and had earned praise for giving Bangur Avenue a facelift, particularly by improving its drainage. The area was infamous for inundated streets after a shower.
But for the 2015 election, the ward was reserved for women candidates. Trinamul fielded Deepti Roy, who won in 2015 but died in 2018. No by-election was held thereafter. Bhattacharjee was asked to contest from Kalindi, where he won.
In the next election, the ward once again got reserved for women and this time a resident of the ward took the matter to court. “I don’t know who filed the case but it is true that norms were not followed when creating the roster for the candidates. The case went for hearing before a single bench of the high court and the government lost the case. It then appealed before a double bench and the matter is now sub judice.”
Bhattacharjee’s supporters claim the rules were manipulated to keep him away from the Bangur Avenue seat, where he was getting increasingly popular. He quit the party at this juncture and joined the BJP before the Assembly polls.
“I do not wish to go back to Trinamul as they don’t know how to play fair. In this area, their party is a one-man army, who used to hold multiple posts in the administration,” said Bhattacharjee, without naming the person known to be his bete noire in local politics, Sujit Bose, who is now a minister and the local MLA.
This time Bhattacharjee has chosen not to contest the civic elections at all.
Former chairman of South Dumdum Municipality, Panchu Ray, said election in Ward 29 would be held as soon as the case is disposed of. “A landslide Trinamul victory was inevitable. People thought BJP was making inroads into Bengal but that never happened. As for Ward 29, we want residents there to vote. The Election Commission would set a date for a bypoll as soon as the verdict is passed by the court,” Ray said.
Meanwhile, Bangur Avenue residents have a long list of complaints and no councillor to take them to. “Our footpaths have been taken over by hawkers and shop owners who spread their wares outside their premises. Traffic has worsened and cars are parked on both sides of the road. A few months ago, a fire engine failed to enter a lane because of this when a fire broke out in Block C,” said Suprakash Chakraborty, a resident of Block B.
Madhuri Jain of Block B complained of bricks, heaps of cement and rods spilling on to the streets in front of construction sites. “Garbage is also not collected regularly,” she said.
Gurupada Saha, of Block A, complained of overhead cables and faulty sewerage. “Water accumulation has returned to haunt Bangur Avenue but we don’t know who to go to,” he said.
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