The outgoing secretary of the CPM’s North 24-Parganas district committee, Mrinal Chakraborty, lost in a battle of ballots held in Barasat on Sunday, embarrassing the state leadership that had been trying to avoid a poll to select a 74-member committee to run affairs of the party for the next three years.

CPM sources said the poll was necessitated after the 26th district conference of the party ended on February 9 without electing the district committee for lack of unanimity.

“After the official panel of a 74-member district committee was placed at the conference, a separate panel consisting 27 names was placed necessitating a battle of ballots. Senior leaders, including Sujan Chakraborty and Manas Mukherjee, tried their best to avoid a poll but that did not happen. Though 25 of the 27 members of the separate panel withdraw their names, two leaders stuck to their grounds and forced an election to form the committee,” a senior CPM leader said.

Delegates, who attended the district conference last week, were convened on Sunday to cast their vote and elect the new committee at the district committee office
in Barasat.

“After the ballots were counted it emerged that Mrinal Chakraborty had failed to win the polls along with another aspirant Soumen Chakraborty from Rajarhat-Newtown, who remained resolute in the contest but ultimately faced defeat. This leaves Mrinal-da out of the district committee. Out of the 474 delegates, 454 turned up to vote. Though the 74-member district committee was elected, the election of the district secretary would take place at the party’s state headquarters in Alimuddin Street on February 19,” the CPM leader said.

CPM sources said that Mrinal, deemed close to party veteran and former minister Gautam Deb, had not been keeping well and the delegates at the conference had been critical of him being at the helm.