The Darjeeling District Congress Lawyers’ Cell (DDCLC) and the Left-backed All India Lawyers’ Union (AILU) have been contesting the elections
[Representational Photo : iStock]
Congress and Left-backed lawyers’ cells may contest separately in the upcoming elections to the Siliguri Bar Association (SBA), which are scheduled to be held on 29 April.
The Darjeeling District Congress Lawyers’ Cell (DDCLC) and the Left-backed All India Lawyers’ Union (AILU) have been contesting the elections on a seat-shar- ing formula since 2016.
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The Congress-Left com- bine bagged 13 of the 15 seats in the last elections.
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The DDCLC has been dominating the SBA by win- ning over the years. Despite being the ruling party in the state, the Trinamul Congress Legal Cell (TMCLC) has failed to make any significant dent so far.
The elections will be held for 16 posts.
A discord between the DDCLC and the AILU sur- faced over the posts of secre- tary and president. Both the camps filed nominations for all the posts today.
“We have contested the elections with the DDCLC with sharing of seats since 2016. In the last elections, the AILU had contested in the posts of vice-president, assistant sec- retary and four executive com- mittee members. We have decided this time to contest in either the post of secretary or president and have placed the proposal to the DDCLC, but we have not been able to reach a consensus so far. Accordingly, we filed nomi- nations for all the 16 seats today. If the discussions remain inconclusive, we will contest according to our capacity,” said Darjeeling district AILU sec- retary Dibakar Roy.
There are 2129 members in the bar and 1429 of them will cast votes.
The DDCLC, on the other hand, said it could take any decision on the demand of the AILU.
“We are hopeful that the dis- cussions will yield positive results. The date for the with- drawal of nomination is 21 April. If that does not happen, we will contest on our own,” said DDCLC secretary Souvik Sengupta.
The TMCLC has, mean- while, accused the DDCLC of making no progress on the construction of the new court building.
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