Alipurduar ZP formation date deferred

SNS, Siliguri, 10 October: People of Alipurduar district were taken aback after the administration deferred the date for the Zilla Paridhad formation in the district without assigning any reason. The district administration had issued a notification to form the ZP on 16 October, following declaration of the new Alipurduar district.

Though the people are in no position to know what led to the postponement, a section of them  have started discussing that the Trinamul Congress failed to manage support of a majority of the members to form the board. Notably, the district administration has decided to form the board of 18 members, who were elected in the Alipurduar sub-division under the undivided Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad area earlier. 

People say that the administration did not issue the notification to form the board just after the formation of the district because the Trinamul did not have a majority of the members then.

The Trinamul has only one elected member in the board and the ruling party leaders have started roping in elected members from other political parties like the Congress and the Left Front.

Though the Trinamul managed to woo three elected members from the Congress, it had failed to convince the LF members. However, recently, the Trinamul managed to rope in four more elected members from the Left Front and it now has eight elected members in its camp in total.

The Trinamul needs at least nine members to form the board and it had expected that an elected member from the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morch (GJMM) would support them. However, sources said the Trinamul leadership is not sure about the GJMM-backed elected member and whether he would extend support to the ruling party. The leadership is trying hard to manage at least two more elected members from the Left Front to confirm the board formation, sources said.

A senior Trinamul leader in Alipurduar, who belongs to the anti-camp of Sourav Chakraborty, the organizational in-charge of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, said: “I do not know why the state government has suddenly deferred the date of the ZP formation. People are curious to know what led to the sudden change in the government’s notification.”

Another Trinamul leader, who requested anonymity, said: “Horse trading is going on.  The party could not manage a majority of the members. It will take them time to have all of them.”