High Court stops TMC to take control of Bongaon municipality

Bongaon (North 24 Parganas)/ Kolkata,July.17 (HS): Protesting against yesterday’s day long drama to regain the control of Bongaon Municipality by Trinamool Congress, BJP today filed a petition in Calcutta High Court demanding steps to ‘prevent the ruling party from forming a new board through the back door’.

Filing the case in the court of justice Samapti Chatterjee this afternoon, BJP lawyer Debjani Dasgupta citing several newspaper reports challenged the ruling party’s claim to regain the control of Bongaon Municipality in bordering North 24 Parganas district, and said it was done through illegal means of voting in a no confidence motion against the Chairman of the Municipality, Shankar Adhya on corruption charges where the majority BJP councillors were prevented from casting their votes by not allowing them to come to the Municipal office ‘on time’ to vote in the no confidence motion.

Though Justice Chatterjee initially remarked that police should take up this issue as it seemed to be a law and order problem, later after hearing both the lawyers she directed that both parties should make fresh applications to the High Court on the issue and till then nobody could and should form a new Board in Bongaon Municipality and take control over it.

It may be recalled that in almost a day long political drama about who would control Bongaon Municipality in future, 9 Tinamool Congress and one Congress Councillor voted  together against a no confidence motion in a close door meeting after allegedly locked up 9 BJP councillors in a room besides preventing two others from entering the municipal building by force to vote in favor of the motion.

As a result by virtue of  majority votes Trinamool Congress re-claimed the governing power in the 22 member Bongaon Municipality which was a prestige fight for them.

But this ‘drama’ enraged the local BJP workers who set up road blocks and sat on a dharna  in protest before trying to enter the Municipal building and forcing the police to resort to lathi charge and fire tear gas cannisters in a total chaotic situation in the area despite the imposition of 144 CRPC by the district authority as a preventive step.

Earlier, after winning the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat by BJP candidate Shantanu Thakur defeating Trinamool Congress candidate and sitting MP Mamata Bala Thakur, several TMC Councillors joined BJP and helped the party to take control of the Municipality with comfortable majority.

A few days ago BJP Councillors brought a no confidence motion against Chairman, Shankar Adhya and wanted to remove him from his post on charge of his alleged involvement in corruption setting off  yesterday’s fiasco.