Arpita Nayak Majumdar, the Trinamul candidate contesting from ward 10 of Alipurduar municipality, did not turn up to campaign and stayed away in Calcutta even on Sunday, when elections were held in all 20 wards of the civic body here along with over 100 other municipalities of the state.

Arpita, the daughter-in-law of Prasanta Narayan Majumder, a state vice-president of Trinamul, filed her nomination with some other candidates, including Jhuma Mitra, a Trinamul worker who filed as an Independent in ward 10.

The other candidates, along with party supporters, launched their campaign in the ward. Unlike others, Arpita did not join the campaign for a single day till February 25, when the campaign ended.

She left for Calcutta a fortnight ago, party insiders said.

Contacted, Arpita said she was busy with family engagements and suggested that Joy Majumder, her husband, who is in Alipurduar, could elaborate on it.

“My wife lost her father recently. She is the only daughter of her parents and had to perform all the rituals,” the husband said.

At a time when Trinamul candidate of all other wards including veterans like Dipto Chatterjee who is contesting from ward 12 of the town toiled ceaselessly to try and secure a win, workers and party supporters in ward 10 had to face a tough time as they had to campaign without the candidate.

Occasionally they had Joy, Arpita’s husband, with them.

“On a number of occasions, we had to face questions because the candidate was absent. All we could do is to assure the voters that she will be back soon while saying they should vote for her to confirm that Trinamul retains the municipality so that development work is expedited,” said a Trinamul functionary who campaigned for Arpita. Still, party insiders said they were hopeful of Arpita’s victory.