Trinamul Congress members of the Bornagar-II panchayat of Kaliachak-III block under the Baishnabnagar police station have introduced a no-confidence motion against their pradhan with the help of BJP panchayat members.
It is alleged that the newly elected MLA of Baishnabnagar constituency, Chandana Sarkar, and her husband are the main “conspirators” behind all this. Ms Sarkar, however, refuted the allegation. According to the panchayat pradhan, the MLA demanded “cut money” from the development work and that Ms Sarkar made this plan after she refused to give her the demanded money.
It may be noted here that after the 2018 panchayat elections, the Trinamul Congress and the BJP managed to secure seven seats each in the gram panchayat, while the Congress won one and two seats went to independent candidates in the 17-member Birnagar-II GP. The TMC then chose their pradhan, Soma Roy, with the help of Congress and independent candidates.
“It is a conspiracy against me to replace the TMC pradhan with a BJP one, engineered by the TMC MLA and her husband. Even after going for an all-around development of the GP, such a plot is on against me. Everything has
been reported to the district president of the party,” Ms Roy said.
Monu Ghosh, the anchal president of the TMC there, said, “This is a result of refusal to provide the MLA the cut money. Once we fought against the BJP and now they have conspired to sack the party pradhan with their help.”
The accused MLA, Ms Sarkar, on the other hand, said, “This is a baseless allegation against me. There are places where the panchayat members are listening to the district leadership.”
BJP district president Gobinda Mandal said the pradhan was “very corrupt” and that they wanted a new one. It may be noted here that the TMC district leadership has been in an awkward situation given the frequent factional feud within the party.
“Anything against the party will not be tolerated,” Abdur Rahim Boxi, the TMC Malda district president, on the other hand said.