The Congress is set to wrest the Mekhliganj municipality in Cooch Behar district from the Trinamool Congress in a re-run of what the state witnessed around three years ago when Trinamool grabbed a civic body in Purulia district from the Congress.
Prabhat Patni, the chairman of the Trinamool-run municipality in Mekhliganj, joined the Congress at the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office in Calcutta on Friday in the presence of state party president Subhankar Sarkar and other senior leaders.
“I joined the Congress today, and soon, the remaining six Trinamool councillors will also join the party in Mekhliganj,” Patni said over the phone.
Mekhliganj has nine wards, of which seven went to Trinamool in the 2022 municipal polls. The BJP bagged the remaining two seats.
“Internal differences have plagued Trinamool. Multiple factions are cropping up in the party every day. BJP leaders had said that ‘bhoy out, bhorosa in (exit of fear and entry of confidence)’, but they are running bulldozers to remove hawkers. In such a situation, we felt the Congress is the best alternative.”
As of now, the Congress is not in power at any civic body in Bengal. In 2022, the Congress and Trinamool had bagged five seats each at the Jhalda municipality in Purulia district, while independents had won the remaining two seats.
However, in March 2022, before the formation of the civic board, Congress councillor Tapan Kandu was murdered, and it was alleged that Trinamool had orchestrated it to “grab power”.
Later, the Congress formed the civic board at Jhalda with the support of two Independents. In 2023, the Independents and three Congress councillors joined Trinamool. Thus, the Congress lost the board, and Trinamool came to power.
“We still remember how Trinamool had grabbed the Jhalda municipality. Today, the civic chairman of Mekhliganj joined our party, and soon, other Trinamool councillors will walk in. Although less than a year is left for the civic polls, we can say that the Congress is in power in at least one civic body in the state,” said Biswajit Sarkar, the Cooch Behar district Congress president.