MLA Ashok Mondol with Trinamul supporters at the Dinhata subdivisional office after filing nominations on Monday. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, May 3: The electoral alliance forged between the Trinamul Congress and the Congress in the Dinhata and Cooch Behar municipalities came crashing down today with the former filing nominations in most of the wards of the two civic bodies for the May 30 election.

The two other municipalities of Mathabhanga and Toofanganj, also in Cooch Behar district, are likely to follow suit after Mamata Banerjee announced a go-alone policy in Calcutta yesterday.

Today, Trinamul filed nominations in 19 of the 20 seats in Cooch Behar and the Congress in all of them. In Dinhata, the Congress had fielded candidates in five seats following an understanding with Trinamul. Today, however, Trinamul filed nominations in 12 of the 15 seats in Dinhata.

Both the municipalities had earlier been cited as examples of ally bonhomie when the two parties elsewhere across the state were not ready to give up an inch and when the formal snapping of ties had not yet been announced.

Sources in the district Trinamul Congress said the party would file nominations in the rest of the seats in both the municipalities tomorrow, the last date for filing of nominations. The same would happen in Toofanganj and Mathabhanga.

In another political development, the Congress Seva Dal district chairman, Bhusan Singh who is also a sitting councillor, filed his nomination from Ward 3 in Cooch Behar as a Trinamul candidate. His daughter Elora Singh is being fielded by the party from Ward 4.

An upbeat Trinamul MLA from Dinhata and councillor from Ward 6 of the town, Ashok Mondol, today threw a challenge to Forward Bloc district secretary Udayan Guha. “He (Guha) had declared that this time he would ensure that the Dinhata municipality is free of any opposition. I am challenging him, let him contest from any ward he pleases. I will contest against him and ensure that he is defeated,” Mondol said. Dinhata, a Left bastion till Kamal Guha— Udayan’s father and a Bloc heavyweight—passed away was wrested by Trinamul in the 2006 Assembly election. Mondol had then contested against Udayan and won by over 3,000 votes.

When told about the challenge, Guha said there was no question of his contesting the municipal elections. “There is no reason for me to react, I can only say that Trinamul has no political agenda, and if the MLA thinks that he has become so popular that he can win from any ward, why is he holding on to his own? Let him contest from elsewhere and prove his claim,” Guha said.

Before Mamata took the decision to have nothing to do with the Congress in Calcutta or elsewhere, the party here had decided to file nominations in five wards in Dinhata, leaving the remaining 10 to the Congress. In Cooch Behar, the former allies had decided to share the 20 seats with the Congress filing for 12 and the Trinamul for eight. However, today’s development has put paid to the equation.

A singed Congress has accused Trinamul of paving the way for the Left Front although it has decided not to file any more nominations even though there is still a day left.

“We stuck to the alliance and filed nominations in only five wards in Dinhata. Today the Trinamul Congress went ahead and filed nominations in 12 seats. Who is responsible for killing the alliance? They have paved the way for the Left to retain the municipality,” said Prasanna Debsharma, the vice-president of the Dinhata block Congress.