The state government is more inclined to have an administrator run the civic body in Calcutta, though the Trinamool councillors have the option of picking a new leader to helm Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), conversations with senior officials suggested.

The administrator is likely to be appointed by early next week. Trinamool won the 2021 KMC election with an overwhelming majority. In the current political scenario, where the party is disintegrating further with every passing day, there is no certainty on how many of these councillors would want to vote to elect a new mayor.

Till Saturday evening, none from Trinamool had approached the civic authorities to elect a new mayor.

Whether the party will make such an effort will become clear on Sunday, when KMC councillors have been asked to go to Trinamool Bhavan for a meeting.

Councillors also believe the meeting has been convened to assess the possibility of foisting a new leader as the Calcutta mayor.

The municipal affairs department issued a notice to KMC commissioner Smita Pandey on Friday, asking her to cite reasons why the corporation should not be dissolved.

Pandey has three days from Friday to respond to the notice.

The notice issued within a few hours of mayor Firhad Hakim’s resignation says that the KMC has “become practically incompetent and has failed to discharge its statutory obligations to render municipal services, which is detrimental to public interest”. It asks “why the Corporation shall not be dissolved” on this ground.

“The commissioner’s reply will come by Monday. A five-member committee will be formed by the state government that may then recommend the appointment of an administrator,” said a senior state official.

“In all likelihood, an administrator will be appointed to lead KMC by early next week,” the official added.

The state government on Saturday appointed the commissioner of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Ravi Agarwal, as the administrator there. Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty had resigned on Thursday. The government had issued a notice, identical to the one issued to KMC, to the Bidhannagar commissioner.

KMC has had administrators at its helm on several occasions since Independence, the latest being during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the term of the previous board ended, but fresh elections could not be held.

Sources said even if an administrator is appointed, councillors may continue to perform their roles. Whether they will still be called councillors or have some other nomenclature will have to be decided.

Hakim was appointed as the chairperson of a board of administrators for two terms between May 2020 and November 2021.

Whether the new administrator appoints a board to run the corporation remains to be seen.

Sources said the rules do not bar the state government from appointing a bureaucrat, like the KMC commissioner, or someone from outside as the administrator. The administrator is likely to enjoy powers equal to the mayor, an elected representative.

State government sources said the possibility of Trinamool proposing the name of a new mayor appeared unlikely. “In this case, the mayor sent his resignation letter to the commissioner, who is also the executive head of KMC. This means the KMC stands dissolved. Had the mayor informed this only to his party, Trinamool would have had the option of electing another councillor as the new mayor,” said a senior official.

A section of state government officials felt Trinamool would have the option of projecting a new face as mayor only if they were able to keep the flock together. “They can elect someone in an intra-party meeting and propose the councillor’s name to the KMC secretary. If the Opposition in the KMC proposes anyone as their candidate, there will be an election on the floor of the civic House. If the Opposition does not project anyone as its candidate, the Trinamool candidate will win uncontested,” said a source.

Trinamool had won 138 of the 144 KMC wards in the 2021 elections. With the death of two councillors, it has, on paper, 136 councillors. The BJP won three wards, the Left Front two and the Congress one. The dynamics have changed since.

While resigning on Friday, Hakim said he was unable to perform his duties since the new government assumed power in the state.