4 rebels return, Trinamool regains majority in Bongaon

Bongaon: Trinamool Congress regained majority in Bongaon municipality in North 24 Parganas on Thursday after four of 11 rebel councillors dumped BJP to stage a ‘ghar wapsi’. With this, the TMC tally rose to 13, crossing the half-way mark in the 22-member municipality.These MLAs had left the party two months ago to join BJP in Delhi in June.With the July 16 trust vote held following the desertions been challenged in Calcutta High Court, the development has come as a shot in the arm for the ruling Trinamool. The HC has reserved its judgment after hearing out both parties. Petitioners Himadri Mandal and Kartik Mandal are among the four who returned to TMC on Thursday.The four councillors — Abhijit Kapooria (Ward 16), Himdari Mandal (Ward 2), Dilip Majumdar (Ward 6) and Kartik Mandal (Ward 7) — called on state municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim at Unnayan Bhavan in Salt Lake before announcing the return. Trinamool’s North 24 Paragans president and food minister Jyotipriya Mullick and Trinamool-led Bongaon municipality chairman Sankar Adhya were present during the talks.“They could not mentally associate with BJP. Barrackpore BJP MP Arjun Singh and BJP MLA from Bongaon Uttar lured them, coaxed them and put pressure on them to dump Trinamool and join BJP. We sat with them, addressed their grievances against Adhya. The matter has been resolved. I hope some more will come back to Trinamool,” Mullick said.Hakim was, however, not in a mood to take back all the 11 rebels back to the TMC fold. Calling them “brave souls”, the minister said: “Mamata Banerjee’s name is etched in their hearts. They are welcome. But the party is not going to take back the mirzafars (traitors),” Hakim said.BJP’s Uttar Bongaon MLA Biswajit Das expressed surprise over the development. “I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to the four councillors before they returned to TMC. I am surprised because they were the ones who wanted me to join BJP. I fear there has been a deal to take them back,” Das said.But the homecoming doesn’t make life smooth for Himadri and Kartik. An abduction case is pending against the duo for which they had to obtain anticipatory bail from the high court. Their colleague and councillor Shampa Mohanti, who followed them and joined BJP, came back to Trinamool weeks ago and lodged a criminal complaint with Bongaon Police alleging that these two men tried to kidnap her. Accordingly, police initiated a kidnapping case against Himdari and Kartik.Himadri and Kartik had moved the HC complaining that TMC members, hand-in-glove with police on duty, had prevented them from participating in the trust vote in Bongaon municipality on July 16 despite a high court directive. The allegation was crucial because Adhya took the chairman’s office with support of 10 (nine Trinamool and one Congress) councillors, keeping all 11 BJP councillors, including Himadri and Kartik, out of the meeting of the board on June 16.But even as numbers changed on Thursday, BJP is looking up to the high court to pass its order on the validity of the trust vote.