Firhad Hakim filed his nomination for the post of mayor on a day when the Bengal BJP fielded former deputy mayor and councillor Meena Devi Purohit for the same post.
The mayor’s election is scheduled on December 3.
The BJP’s decision to run the mayoral election is an apparent attempt to undo the “mistake” of not opposing the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, that the Assembly passed last week to make way for electing a non-councillor to the post of mayor.
The BJP state president, Dilip Ghosh, who is also the Kharagpur Sadar MLA, has come under attack in the party for not using the legislative process to oppose the bill, a source said.
“Even our leaders in Delhi are unhappy with the manner in which we let the bill pass without opposition,” the source said.
According to the source, in a desperate attempt to find a face-saver, Purohit, a councillor of ward 22 in Burrabazar, was persuaded to contest the mayoral election though the BJP has only five councillors, including the mayor nominee, against Trinamul’s 122.
“It is my democratic right to contest the polls. The party wanted me to contest and so I am in the fray,” Purohit said.
Hakim, whom the Trinamul councillors have selected as their leader, arrived at the civic headquarters around 2pm on Wednesday and headed straight to the conference room, where he signed in the necessary papers.
The urban development and fire services minister then went to the office of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation secretary, where he completed some legal formalities before submitting his nomination.
“One hundred and twenty two councillors of the Trinamul have reposed faith in me as their leader. I will meet you all after the election of December,” Hakim told journalists and heads of all departments of the corporation present in the conference room where he filed the nomination.
Purohit said it was unfortunate that the Trinamul had failed to repose faith in any of its 122 councillors and instead chosen a candidate “who has so many departments under his disposal”.
The CPM councillor from ward 75, Belquis Begum, on Wednesday moved a petition in Calcutta High Court challenging the validity of the newly enacted legislature.
The case has been fixed for hearing on Friday before Justice Debangshu Basak.
The petition alleges the amendment had violated Article 243-R of the Constitution, which says “all the seats in a municipality shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from the territorial constituencies in the municipal area and for this purpose each municipal area shall be divided into territorial constituencies to be known as wards”.