Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim wants to resign, and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has agreed to let him do so.
Sources close to Hakim said he had been telling Mamata about his desire to resign as the mayor for a few days.
He will finally put in his papers later this week or next week, a source in the know said.
Hakim has also said in his close quarters that though he visits the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) almost every day, very few officials or visitors come to his office.
The office, where long queues of visitors waiting to meet the mayor were common before the Bengal Assembly election results, wears a deserted look now.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: “Calcutta’s mayor Firhad Hakim has repeatedly told our leader, Mamata Banerjee, about his wish to resign. When Firhad Hakim told Mamata Banerjee that he wanted an honourable exit, she dissuaded him initially.”
Outside Mamata’s Kalighat home, Ghosh, the party MLA from Beleghata, added that he was present on one of the occasions when Hakim expressed his desire to quit. “He said the KMC was defunct and that he was unable to work,” Ghosh said.
“Today (Wednesday), Mamata Banerjee allowed Hakim to resign as mayor so he did not face humiliation, and keeping in mind that there is an attempt to run the KMC through the commissioner by keeping the board (comprising elected representatives) defunct,” Ghosh added.
A source close to Hakim told The Telegraph that he had not put in his papers till Wednesday evening. “He will, however, resign later this week or next week,” the source added.
That the KMC’s board had virtually become defunct also came up during discussions at the administrative meeting chaired by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari in Nabanna on Wednesday, Ghosh said. The commissioner is running the civic body bypassing the Trinamool board, Ghosh suggested.
“At the administrative meeting in Nabanna today, it was said that the KMC was defunct. The commissioner (of the KMC) will work with advice from the MLAs,” Ghosh said.
KMC sources said Hakim would have to tender his resignation to the KMC chairperson, Mala Roy.
The KMC’s regular activities, funds flow and work on projects have slowed down as an air of uncertainty hangs over who is in real charge — the Trinamool-run KMC board or the BJP-helmed state government.
The tenure of the current Trinamool-run KMC board will end in December when the civic elections are due, but many councillors have said in private that they have lost their influence and clout. Engineers and officials do not respond promptly to their requests any longer, some of them told this newspaper last week.
Several new BJP MLAs have met the KMC commissioner, Smita Pandey, and other officials and engineers over the past few weeks to take stock of projects in their constituencies.
On Tuesday, municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul visited a couple of under-construction drainage pumping stations of the KMC, at least one running drainage pumping station and some canals that drain out water from the city.
No mayoral council member was present during Paul’s inspection, though engineers were there in large numbers.