Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday appealed for unity among Trinamool Congress councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

In a meeting with the councillors, Hakim told them that the party was bigger than personal differences.

The mayor asked all councillors at the closed-door meeting to ensure leads from their wards in the polls, one councillor who attended the meeting, told Metro.

Hakim’s “pep talk” comes in the wake of Trinamool Congress’s now-removed general secretary Kunal Ghosh repeatedly speaking out against the party’s Kolkata North candidate Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

Earlier in April, Monalisa Banerjee, the councillor of Ward 49, sat in a protest in a Trinamool Congress party office near Wellington Square alleging that despite being the councillor, she was not being informed about the party activities in her ward.

Monalisa had also alleged that a section of party workers were trying to bypass her.

“Friday’s meeting was held primarily to address differences cropping up in north Calcutta. Hakim asked all councillors to work together,” said one of the 132 councillors of Trinamool.

“The mayor spoke about how chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been away from home for most of the last month and was working hard to ensure victory of party candidates. He then urged that we must forget all differences and work for the victory of the party’s candidates,” said the councillor.

“It was an organisational meeting ahead of elections to charge up the councillors who play a key role in the poll campaign,” Hakim later told Metro.

There are four Lok Sabha seats whose results will partially or fully depend on Trinamool’s performance in the 144 wards of the KMC.

“The Kolkata South constituency is spread across 59 wards of the KMC while Kolkata North has 60 wards. The Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat includes 19 wards of KMC in Tollygunge and Jadavpur areas. Sixteen wards of the KMC are part of the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat,” said Bappaditya Dasgupta, the chief whip of Trinamool Congress at the KMC.

Mala Roy, the Trinamool Kolkata South candidate was present in Friday’s meeting since she is a councillor and the chairperson of the KMC.

None of the other three candidates were present in the meeting.

Councillors in the meeting said Hakim also took the name of Tapas Roy, former Trinamool MLA and now BJP’s Kolkata North candidate.

“Hakim said that personal relations with Tapas Roy can stay, but when he is contesting against our party we should consider him an opponent,” said one councillor.

“He said that if Tapas Roy invites him on some personal occasions, he will go. But in politics, they are rivals,” added the councillor.