Day after, Bongaon civic chairman and 10 councillors back in office

BONGAON: A day after a confidence vote in Bongaon Municipality in North 24 Parganas triggered a flare-up with both Trinamool and BJP councillors claiming they had won the trust vote, Trinamool chairman Sankar Adhya and 10 councillors, including the lone Congress councillor Sambhu Das, of the 22-member municipality entered the civic building under tight security on Wednesday.
The lone CPM councillor, Manobendra Karmakar, didn’t turn up at the municipality as he had abstained from the trust vote on Tuesday .
On the other hand, the 11 BJP councillors took out a protest rally against “police atrocities” across Bongaon town on Wednesday afternoon.
Though Adhya held meetings in his chairman’s office with his councillors on several civic issues, the presence of civic officers and employees was nominal.
Adhya said: “We came to the office today as usual to keep all civic services running. I urge all councillors to come to the municipality as we will do our job together.”
On being questioned about the severe condemnation against the ruling party by Calcutta High Court over the confidence vote “drama”, Adhya said: “We have nothing to do with any disorder creating ruckus over the trust vote. We were going through a legal process after which we won the trust vote. We will also obey the judgment of the court in future if those Trinamool-turned-BJP councillors move court.”
Raising allegation of “police atrocities”, the BJP councillors accompanied by hundreds of party supporters took out a procession from Bongaon Batar More. “Police deliberately detained and stopped our councillors from entering the municipality on Tuesday under the influence of Trinamool leaders. We have moved court against this nexus of Trinamool and police.”