Two prominent faces of the Left Front in Siliguri, Rambhajan Mahato and Kamal Agarwal, joined Mamata Banerjee’s party here on Wednesday.
After Shankar Ghosh, a CPM leader who walked out of the party to join the BJP and become the Siliguri MLA, this is the second major defection by Left leaders in the city.
Mahato, the immediate past deputy mayor and sole RSP councillor in the last civic board headed by CPM veteran Asok Bhattacharya, joined Trinamul along with Agarwal, a former CPM councillor. Agarwal has served as the member, mayor-in-council, in a number of important departments of the civic body.
Senior Trinamul leader Gautam Deb and the party’s Darjeeling (plains) district committee chief Ranjan Sarkar formally inducted the duo. Deb said both Mahato and Agarwal had taken up key responsibilities in the Left-ruled civic board.
“They were in touch with us for months and wanted to join Trinamul. Once Assembly polls were over, they approached us again....We will use their experience to expedite better civic services. Our prime aim is to provide support and service to citizens, especially when everybody is struggling amid the pandemic,” said Deb, also chairperson of the board of administrators of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC).
Political observers said the disastrous performance of the Left-Congress-ISF combine in the state election had left many senior Left leaders of the city aggrieved with the leadership.
“In the coming months, you will find many leaders from other parties, and prominent apolitical faces, joining Trinamul,” said Sarkar.
According to party insiders, though Trinamul lost Siliguri and Dabgram-Fulbari seats to the BJP, the party is upbeat about the dwindling Left support base.
“We came second while Asok Bhattacharya finished third. This indicates people are fed up with the Left and Congress. Now that we have formed the government with 213 seats, we are confident of securing the SMC. We are focussing on civic areas as sooner or later, municipal polls will be held,” said a party leader.
