Swapan Saha in court. (Biplab Basak)

Siliguri, July 2: A newly elected Trinamul Congress councillor of the Malbazar Municipality was arrested yesterday with five others for attacking his party leaders and those of the Congress.

Swapan Saha, who won from Ward 1 and is among the three Trinamul winners in the civic body, was granted bail by the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Jalpaiguri today.

Members of the Congress and Trinamul yesterday assaulted their leaders and ransacked a vehicle belonging to one of them after the Left Front won back the municipality in Jalpaiguri district after 10 years. They held the leaders responsible for failing to stitch up an alliance for the civic polls — one of the reasons, they felt, for the rout at a time when an anti-Left Front wind is sweeping Bengal.

Saha and 10 others had been named in FIRs filed by Subhasish Ghosh, the block Trinamul president, and Pulin Goldar, a Congress leader.

Although Ghosh had refused to admit yesterday that his party members had assaulted him, he had named Saha in the complaint. The car ransacked by the supporters belonged to Goldar.

“We had arrested six persons, including Saha, while five others are yet to be picked up. They had been booked for assault, ransack and fighting,” said Nikita Foning, the subdivisional police officer of Malbazar.

In court, there was an unexpected development with Goldar withdrawing his complaint. The court granted bail to all the six. The next day of hearing has been fixed for July 10.

Ghosh, however, has made it clear that he has no intention of withdrawing the police complaint.

“These are some members in our party who have joined politics for financial gains. They are not ready to follow any guidelines — even if it is laid down by Mamata Banerjee — if it affects their interests,” Ghosh alleged.

“It is imperative that the party takes some decision to curb such incidents or else, it will embolden these people. About the charge that we had not fought as an alliance, we had only implemented the instructions of the state leaders,” the block Trinamul president said. “It is unfortunate that we lost the board only by one seat but that cannot be a justification for the attack.”

Gautam Deb, the chairman of the Trinamul core committee for north Bengal who started for Calcutta today, said he would brief the state leaders on Malbazar. “We will definitely analyse the reasons for defeat, but it is up to the state leadership to decide on the punishment of the attackers.”