May 6: Sources in Trinamul today claimed that Mamata Banerjee had given a free hand to Nantu Paul on matters with regard to the Siliguri Municipal Corporation even as a section of party councillors were disappointed over the chief minister selecting him as the party leader in the civic body.
Mamata had announced Paul’s name as the Trinamul leader in the SMC after a meeting with all 17 elected party councillors during her trip to north Bengal earlier this week.
“Didi told Nantu that he could decide on matters related to the SMC and she would not intervene. She advised him to work with all the councillors,” said a Trinamul source.
The Left Front has 23 members in the 47-ward SMC and Trinamul won 17 seats in the civic polls.
There were allegations that Trinamul was trying to wrest the civic board from the Left Front by wooing councillors, which the ruling party has denied.
“I heard that the Left Front took its councillors to Darjeeling when I went to Siliguri. Why are they so scared? Don’t they trust their own councillors?” Mamata asked while addressing her party councillors from different civic bodies across the state at Nazrul Mancha in Calcutta this afternoon.
Trinamul sources said Mamata had held a meeting with Paul and Siliguri MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya after her interaction with the newly-elected councillors of the 91 civic bodies across the state.
Siliguri Municipal Corporation was left out as Mamata had held a meeting with the councillors in Siliguri on Monday.
“I came to Calcutta to meet the councillors from the other civic bodies and hear what Didi had to tell them,” Paul said today when asked about his trip to Calcutta.
According to Trinamul insiders, Paul’s new role as the party leader in the Siliguri civic body indicated that Mamata was not too happy with the performance of north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, who was leading the poll campaign.
“Mamatadi herself gave so much time to Siliguri. She had regularly visited the town and announced projects for the region. Even then, we failed to win the civic board. As Gautam Deb was leading the charge, so he has to share the blame,” said a Trinamul leader in Calcutta.
Deb was keen on contesting the polls as a mayoral candidate but he had to back out after Mamata refused to allow him.
A section of Trinamul leaders believes that the absence of a mayoral candidate hit the party hard and some Siliguri councillors are upset with Paul getting prominence after he switched over from the Congress in 2012.
His switching sides led to a long court battle between the Congress and Trinamul.
Both parties had contested the SMC polls in 2009 as allies and defeated the Left Front.
The alliance, however, was short-lived.
“By selecting Paul as the leader, the state leadership has ignored senior councillors who have done more for the party than him,” said a councillor.
A section of the councillors is also unhappy with Paul for trying to get into a contest for the posts of the mayor and chairman of the SMC.
They want to sit in the Opposition at the SMC instead.
“We do not have the numbers. We can get the board only by engineering defections and that could have an adverse impact on the electorate,” said a Trinamul leader.
Paul claimed that Mamata had only named him as the Trinamul leader and did not give any clear-cut instruction on whether the party would sit in the Opposition.
“Didi did not say that Trinamul would sit in the Opposition nor did she name me as the leader of the Opposition. So we can explore all avenues to stake claim to form the civic board,” Paul said.
In another development, Independent candidate Arabinda Ghosh, who won from ward 15, today spoke to the CPM’s mayoral candidate and former minister Asok Bhattacharya over the phone to seek an appointment.
“I spoke to him today and I have requested him to fix a time tomorrow to meet him and speak about my conditions and support,” Ghosh said today.