Anupam Dutta, the only Trinamul Congress councillor who had been a member of all four civic boards in Salt Lake to date, has once again filed his nomination for the elections next month. But this time he shall contest as an Independent candidate. 

Trinamul has not given Dutta a ticket and so the seasoned politician went ahead and filed his nomination for Ward 41 as an Independent on Tuesday. Ward 41 comprises AA, AB, AC, AD, BC, BD blocks and the slums along Kestopur Canal. Dutta was the erstwhile councillor of Ward 7, comprising BD and BE blocks. He himself is a resident of BD Block. 

“I had an inkling that the party might not give me a ticket this time so I had been visiting houses in the ward for the last few weeks and speaking to voters. They told me to go ahead and contest as an Independent. I am a politician and I must do what people want me to,” Dutta told The Telegraph Salt Lake.
In Dutta’s last tenure as a councillor, BD Market got a facelift, a gym came up on its first floor and BD Park and Laban Hrad Mancha got renovated.  

Dutta says he does not know why the party overlooked him but a Trinamul source claimed that it was the doing of food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick. Mullick has been handling the municipal election on behalf of the party. “It is an open secret that Dutta and Mullick do not share a cordial relationship. It was Mullick who managed to keep Dutta out of the fray,” said the source.

When contacted by The Telegraph Salt Lake, Mullick seemed nonchalant about the development.

“Anupam Dutta will not be a factor. In fact, if he contests as an Independent, he will not only lose the election but also his party membership,” Mullick said on Monday.

Urban development minister Firhad Hakim said he hoped Dutta would withdraw his nomination. “We wanted to give tickets to everyone but we could not as the seats in Salt Lake have gone down from 25 to 14. It was a party decision not to give him a ticket. I would request him to remain in the party and not contest. Else he will be removed from Trinamul Congress,” Hakim said on Wednesday.

Dutta said nobody from the party had spoken to him on the issue, but lashed out at Mullick’s prophecy of his defeat. “The Trinamul I used to know would hit the streets to help people. But now it seems its leaders are turning astrologers. Let them be reminded of the 1977 polls in which the so-called invincible Indira Gandhi lost in Rae Bareilly,” Dutta said. 

Eyebrows had shot up when the veteran councillor was spotted on September 12 at the formation of Salt Lake Citizens’ Forum, the group forged by CPM’s Goutam Deb and Congress’s Arunava Ghosh with the motive of ensuring free and fair polls. He had even addressed the forum, perceived as an anti-Trinamul coalition. “All parties resort to rigging during the elections but this time I shall bank on the residents of my ward to counter this threat. We will put up barricades and prevent the entry of outsiders,” Dutta said.

But despite spewing venom, Dutta has kept his options open. “I’m sure people will vote for me but after winning if my voters ask me to support Trinamul, I will. An elected representative cannot make personal choices,” Dutta said.