BJP councillors on Friday demanded a discussion on the murder attempt on Trinamool Congress councillor Sushanta Ghosh at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s monthly session and accused the TMC board of turning down the proposal.

Sajal Ghosh, the BJP councillor of Ward 50, said Friday’s session should have discussed the attempt to kill a fellow councillor. The monthly sessions are attended by councillors where civic issues are discussed.

Sajal said he had submitted a written request to discuss the attack but learnt after reaching the council chamber on Friday that it had not been listed for discussion.

The BJP councillor, who started with the issue of safety in the city’s parks, brought up the attack on Sushanta, the councillor of Ward 108 and chairman of borough XII. But Trinamool councillors, who far outnumber their opponents, protested.

“I wanted to raise the question of the safety and security of councillors. If elected representatives like councillors are unsafe, imagine how unsafe common people feel,” Sajal later told Metro.

Sushanta was present at Friday’s session when Sajal raised the demand for a discussion on the attempt to kill him. Sushanta did not say anything about the demand.

“I submitted a request to discuss the matter to the chairperson of the KMC on November 19 (Tuesday) but it was not accepted. No one called me to say that it was not accepted or why it was turned down. I came to know that my request to discuss the issue was not accepted after seeing the list of matters to be discussed,” Sajal said.

Mala Roy, the councillor of Ward 88 and the Trinamool MP from Kolkata South, is the KMC chairperson. The chairperson presides over all sessions and plays a role in the civic house which is equivalent in many ways to that of the Speaker in the Assembly.

Roy told this newspaper: “Sajal Ghosh had submitted a ‘condemnation motion’. The rules do not allow discussion on a ‘condemnation motion’ in any KMC session. Such a motion has to be discussed in the Assembly. His proposal was not accepted because the rules did not allow it.”

Sushanta was speaking to acquaintances in front of his house near Acropolis Mall in Kasba’s Rajdanga on November 15 night when a man, later identified as Yuvraj Singh, got off a scooter and tried to fire at him. The gun did not fire.

Singh tried to flee on the two-wheeler but was caught.

Four persons have been arrested for the murder bid — Singh; a taxi driver named Ahmed Khan; Gulzar Khan, the alleged mastermind, who is a resident of Gulshan Colony in Anandapur; and Mohammad Phoolbabu, whose name surfaced during interrogation of the other three.

Phoolbabu was arrested in Bihar’s Samastipur on Friday.

“I am attending office every day but I am not sitting outside my home for chats that I used to do before,” Sushanta said.