Trinamul leadership directs minister not to contest Siliguri civic elections, KMC Civic Poll, Kolkata Civic ebody election, KMC Election 2015,Siliguri Municipal Corporation polls
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- Category: West Bengal Latest Election News and Updates
- Last Updated: Thursday, 19 March 2015 10:54
Trinamul leadership directs minister not to contest Siliguri civic elections
Siliguri, March 18: Minister Gautam Deb will not contest the Siliguri Municipal Corporation polls following a directive from the Trinamul Congress leadership. He was widely expected to be Trinamul's mayoral candidate.
The north Bengal development minister, who was tipped to be the candidate in ward 15, said today: "I was instructed by the party top brass not to contest the elections and I will go by it. However, it wouldn't affect the campaign or the morale of Trinamul workers and candidates as we will join hands and move forward. We will publish the candidates' list latest by Friday."
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Sources in Trinamul said the decision to keep Deb and other state ministers out of the civic election fray had been taken by party supremo Mamata Banerjee in consultation with senior leaders.
"It has been decided that none of the state ministers will contest the Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls. In fact, two state ministers were interested in contesting the Calcutta civic polls. In a similar manner, it was decided that Gautam Deb would also be asked to abstain from contesting the SMC polls," said a party source.
Deb was the councillor of ward 17 in the previous civic board and his wife Shukla Deb will be the candidate in the seat, which is reserved for women this time. The minister was expected to contest from ward 15 and had already started campaigning there.
The Trinamul sources said Maitrayee Chakraborty, a former party councillor, would be the new candidate in ward 15.
The decision to keep Deb out of the electoral fray has come as a major setback for Trinamul, said a party leader.
"He had held citizens' conventions across Siliguri to apprise people of the development work carried out by his department and held several interactions with people. Today's decision has demoralised Trinamul leaders, including candidates, and supporters. It will be a tough job for Deb, who is the Darjeeling district president of the party, now to boost the morale of the workers," said a Trinamul leader.
Trinamul insiders said the party would find it difficult to project any other leader as the mayoral candidate with Deb's absence from the electoral fray. "Now that he is out of the contest, several leaders will try to project themselves as the party's mayoral candidate," said an insider.