Kharagpur municipality chairperson Pradip Sarkar resigned on Wednesday but it was not accepted by sub-divisional authorities, leaving him in the post for at least another week.

Sources said Sarkar would have to resign by calling a meeting of the board of councillors next Tuesday, after which the sub-divisional administration will accept it.

“Trinamul ordered Sarkar to resign by Wednesday 2pm as 18 councillors rebelled against him,” said a source.

Sarkar said he wanted to obey the party’s order but could not.

“I went to resign as instructed by the party. But after looking into the municipality law book, the SDO said that I should resign only after a meeting with all councillors,” Sarkar said. “The councillors have a meeting next Tuesday. I will formally resign there.”

Last week, 18 Trinamul councillors of Kharagpur in writing told the party leadership they had no confidence in Sarkar. Soon after that, the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee instructed Sarkar to resign.

A Trinamul source said Sarkar did not resign till Monday and was told by district Trinamul coordinator Ajit Maiti on Tuesday night to resign by Wednesday 2pm.