The Trinamool Congress lost control of the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation on Friday night following the mass resignation of 30 councillors, including mayor Ram Chakraborty.
The civic body in Hooghly district has a total of 33 councillors, of whom 31 belong to Trinamool and two to the CPM.
On Thursday, five councillors, including deputy mayor Munna Agarwal, submitted their resignations. On Friday night, 25 more councillors, including the mayor, submitted their resignations via email to the corporation commissioner.
The Chandernagore civic body is among Bengal's five municipal corporations where Trinamool has lost control within 26 days of the party's defeat in the Assembly elections.
"We all decided to resign as we can no longer ensure the pace at which we used to work for the people of Chandernagore," said Chakraborty.
He later explained why the councillors were unable to function under the current circumstances.
"The government has changed, and so has the situation. The new government has decided to conduct an audit before allowing us to continue our work. We had several sanctioned development projects, and now the contractors are unwilling to carry them out, fearing a crisis over payments. We want the people of Chandernagore to receive proper development," he added.
Chakraborty, who has been associated with the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation for more than 25 years, serving as both the Opposition leader and the mayor, said the Trinamool councillors believed the new government would work better for the local people.
"If we hold on to our posts and cannot work, it would send the wrong message," he said.
Earlier, councillors and chairpersons quit their posts at more than a dozen Trinamool-run municipalities.
Sources said Trinamool's representatives at several civic bodies resigned from their posts for various reasons, including the change in power, lack of direction from the party's top leadership, fear of arrest over alleged corruption and atrocities in the past, and, most importantly, the government's decision to conduct detailed probes and audits into their previous activities and financial transactions.
The urban development and municipal affairs department, headed by minister Agnimitra Paul, has already initiated the review of the functioning of urban local bodies. A source said the department would soon appoint an administrator to run the affairs of the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation.
The sources said the resignations highlighted how Trinamool's organisational structure had become rattled after its defeat in the Assembly elections. Several councillors and municipal chairpersons claimed they had no option but to resign because the party's top leadership was not available to guide them in running those institutions.
Bengal has 128 urban local bodies, including five municipal corporations, and Trinamool or its ally had been in power in all of them, except one in Nadia district.
"It has been less than a month since the party lost power in the state. Within this short period, the party has lost complete control over one of its corporations besides multiple civic bodies," said a senior Trinamool leader.
The trend of Trinamool losing control over civic bodies accelerated following the recovery of cash and arms from the possession of municipal functionaries and the arrests of local party leaders allegedly involved in corruption and atrocities during Mamata Banerjee's 15-year rule.
Chairman arrested
Police on Friday night arrested Biman Krishna Saha, the chairman of the Trinamool-run Nabadwip municipality, after a large quantity of relief materials meant for government distribution was recovered from near a club beside his residence.
Residents alleged that the relief materials, which the government had sent for distribution among poor people, were misappropriated by Trinamool leader Saha and kept in his possession