The selection process of members in nine vacant posts of different Sthayee Samitis of the South Dinajpur Zilla Parishad was completed today.

Followers of TMC leader and minister Biplab Mitra, who returned to the TMC fold from the BJP, were reinstated in their old posts, it is learnt. Police personnel in large numbers were deployed on the Zilla Parishad premises as the selection process went on today, to prevent any untoward incident, especially amid the alleged rift between two groups of the TMC.

Before the official process began, Mr Mitra held a meeting with the elected members at the Sabhadhipati’s chamber. District president of the TMC Goutam Das also welcomed the selection to the samitis. After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 10 ZP members, including the Sabhadhipati, had joined the BJP with Mr Mitra. The then TMC district president Arpita Ghosh had expelled the 10 from the party, while nine of the posts of the sthayee samitis had become vacant then.

But within a few months, nine of the elected members returned to the TMC fold. Meanwhile, before the Assembly elections, Mr Mitra also returned to the TMC and became the district TMC chairman. However, there was a conflict between Goutam Das and Biplab Mitra on the selection of the members. While Mr Das was in favour of old members who never joined any other party, Mr Mitra wanted his followers to be reinstated.

To settle the matter, the TMC district committee had formed a monitoring committee. However, despite the monitoring committee’s repeated calls to have a meeting with ZP members, followers of Mr Mitra had avoided such meetings. “There was a possibility of clashes erupting between followers of the district president Gautam Das and Biplab Mitra today. A huge contingent of the police force was deployed.

In the official meeting in the presence of the district administration, the members of the standing committee were unanimously nominated,” a party source said. According to the District Panchayat and Rural Development Officer, Govinda Dutt, there were nine posts in the standing committees of the ZP for PWD, Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Education and Small Cottages lying vacant for a long time.

“All the posts have been filled through today’s meeting,” he said. The two TMC leaders, on the other hand, denied any conflict between them. “We both sat down and fixed the matter on Tuesday itself. We have no conflict and we are
united. Therefore, the members have been elected unanimously in today’s meeting,” Mr Mitra said.