Leaders of Trinamul Darjeeling (plains) district committee have formed a seven-member committee to monitor the party’s organisational activities under the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) area in view of the upcoming civic polls.

Senior party leaders here said on Friday that the committee will also draw up the campaign plan and select candidates who will contest the municipal elections here.

“There has been a specific instruction from the state leadership that such a committee should be formed to oversee party’s activities in the civic area. Accordingly, we sent a panel of 15 names among whom the state leaders selected seven persons. Accordingly, the committee has been constituted. It will work until the civic elections are over,” said Alok Chakraborty, the chairman of Trinamul’s Darjeeling (plains) district.

The seven members of this new Trinamul committee are Chakraborty himself; Papiya Ghosh, the district president; Vedabrata Dutta, the district spokesperson; Pratul Chakraborty, a state general secretary of the party; and Pradip Goyal, Jayanta Kar and Dulal Dutt, three presidents of as many town committees of the party.Senior leaders such as former minister and current chair of the SMC board of administrators Gautam Deb and former district party president Ranjan Sarkar have not been included in the committee.

“We have followed the instructions of state leaders and cannot comment on the issue. All of us have to go by party’s guidelines,” said Chakraborty, when asked if the absence of Deb and Sarkar will create a negative impact on organisational activities.

He said that after the Assembly elections, they received around 10,000 applications from people, mostly political workers of other parties, seeking to join Mamata Banerjee’s party.

“The party has decided to scrutinise each application and then decide on induction. We do not want to hurry on the issue,” he said.

Along with political activities across all the 47 wards of the SMC, the committee will also make its recommendations about prospective candidates who will contest from these wards.

“Till date, Trinamul has never got a majority in the SMC,” said a party insider. “This time, we are determined to secure the civic body here. All necessary efforts would be taken in this regard.”