Jalpaiguri, Aug. 27 -- In a dramatic turn of events, Saikat Chatterjee resigned as chairman of Jalpaiguri Municipality just 15 minutes before councillors were scheduled to vote on a no-confidence motion against him on Thursday.
On the same day, the Department of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs issued a notification dissolving the municipal board and directed Jalpaiguri Sadar SDO Moin Ahmed to take charge as administrator with immediate effect.
A special meeting on the motion was scheduled for noon at the municipality's conference hall. However, Chatterjee submitted his resignation at 11.45 am, bringing an end to the prolonged political turmoil surrounding the civic body. His next political move has also triggered speculation.
Chatterjee, who had once held an important position within the Trinamool Congress, faced the no-confidence motion from a section of his own party colleagues amid growing internal divisions.
Of the municipality's 25 councillors, two belong to the Congress and one to the CPI(M).
The two Congress councillors were absent, while the CPI(M) councillor attended but did not vote. Among the 21 Trinamool councillors, excluding Chatterjee, two did not participate and three had already resigned. The remaining 16 councillors voted in favour of the no-confidence motion.
In his resignation letter, Chatterjee alleged that a series of incidents had created an atmosphere of fear and apprehension among councillors, preventing them from voting freely and fairly. "The entire episode was deliberately orchestrated with the intention of a political vendetta.
That is why I decided to resign without participating in the voting process," he said. Former vice-chairman Sandip Mahato and councillor Nilam Sharma, speaking on behalf of the Trinamool councillors who moved the motion, alleged that the municipality had become "virtually dysfunctional" under Chatterjee's leadership and that some councillors had
faced intimidation.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.