The Trinamool Congress-run Jalpaiguri municipality on Tuesday announced the formation of the new chairman-in-council (CIC), almost six months after the selection of the new chairman and vice-chairman of the civic body.

Saikat Chatterjee, the chairman, said that a meeting of the municipal board was held on Tuesday, where he announced the names of five councillors who will also serve as members of the CIC and will be in charge of different departments.

“The CIC has been constituted in accordance with the municipal rules,” he said.

The newly-formed CIC, he said, has Subrata Pal (ward 6), Tapan Bandyopadhyay (ward 15), Pramod Mondal (ward 9), Lopamudra Adhikari (ward 19), and Dinesh Raut (ward 10).

The announcement, however, raised questions within the party. In November last year, after Saikat and Sandeep Mahato were appointed as chairman and vice-chairman, they replaced earlier office-bearers put up by the party.

However, differences between the two reportedly emerged within just 10 days, with Mahato staying away from the municipality for more than three months.

As the differences subsided, the Trinamool leadership instructed the district leaders to form the new CIC.

This made Krishna Das, the district president of Trinamool’s SC & OBC cell, reach out to the state leadership and get a list of the members of the CIC approved.

A couple of months back, a meeting was called at the district party office, where district Trinamool president Mahua Gope read out the list. Soon after, protests rocked the office, with most of the councillors opposing it.

In such a situation, Gope postponed the formation of the CIC.

“The situation, however, changed after the elections as Krishna Das, who contested as the Trinamool candidate of the Jalpaiguri Assembly seat and lost to the BJP, went into hiding as he is wanted in police cases. This made the chairman and other Trinamool leaders amend the list and form the CIC,” said a party functionary.

Among the five councillors whose names Krishna had put in his list, Chatterjee has only included Subrata Pal, said sources.

Asked about the earlier list, Saikat Chatterjee said: “The selection of members of the CIC is under the jurisdiction of the municipal chairman. We don’t know whether any official list had previously been prepared.”