A seven-member monitoring committee of the Trinamul Congress has been set up for all 47 wards under the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) in view of the preparations for the civic body elections.

The committee will oversee the organisational activities of the party until the polls are held. However, former minister and the chairman of the board of administrators of the SMC Gautam Deb and former Darjeeling district party president Ranjan Sarkar have not been given a place in the committee.

According to the district Trinamul Congress (Plains) president, Papiya Ghosh, the state party leadership had sought some names for selection of the committee and that they had sent 15, based on which the seven names were approved. She, however, refused to speak on whether the list included Mr Deb and Mr Sarkar.

The panel includes party veteran and state general secretary Pratul Chakraborty, district party chairman Alok Chakravarty, Mrs Ghosh herself, three-party town committee presidents-Pradip Goyal (Town-I), Jayanta Kar (II), Dulal Dutta (III), and spokesperson Bedabrata Dutta.

“According to the directives of the state party leadership, a meeting was held at the district party office. A seven-member monitoring committee has been set up, which will look into the organisational activities of the party in 47 wards till the civic body elections,” said Bedabrata Dutta.

A member of the committee said they would work by taking in opinions from senior leaders. Mr Chakravarty said the state party leaders had nominated the seven-member committee, which will hold weekly meetings. Mr Sarkar, on the other hand, said that the party had taken the decision and that he had nothing to say on that.

Meanwhile, party joining programmes, which were stalled for the past few months, will take place tomorrow, it is learnt. “Many people have expressed their willingness to join Trinamul Congress. The number of applications has gone up to 12,000. We had briefly halted the programmes and in between, we held discussions with the party workers, took their opinions, scrutinized the profiles of those who are eager to join.

We are not in favour of inducting those who have vested interests and are not committed to the party. The party has selected around seven persons to include them in our party. They will join tomorrow” Mrs Ghosh said. Party insiders said among those joining tomorrow, some are associated with the BJP.