Asok sniffs TMC cross-vote effort - Left winners cautioned on election-eve

Asok Bhattacharya

Bireswar Banerjee & Soumya De Sarkar, TT, Siliguri, May 17: Asok Bhattacharya today said Trinamul had tried to win over some victorious councillors of the Left Front ahead of the elections to the posts of mayor and chairman at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation.

Trinamul's decision to field candidates for the two posts has raised the stakes with the Left Front fearing efforts to woo its winners. The Left leaders, who had to chalk out fresh plans after Trinamul fielded candidates in both the mayor and chairman's posts, kept their councilors together and kept them busy at office by different indoor activities like workshop and meeting. Trinamul leaders, on the other hand, were engage in confirming that there is no cross-voting from any of their councilors and trying to garner additional support from some of the councilors from Left, Congress and BJP.

the independent councilor of ward 15) taught workshop and also a meeting of the Left Front where the councilors were and their role in the entire proceedingsright from the oath taking ceremony of councilors," Asok has been projected as the mayoral candidate by Left, said. As party workers sit hawk-eyed in wards and keeping watch on a section of councilors who might defect, senior leaders like Bhattacharya and CPM district secretary Jibesh Sarkar are planning for tomorrow's proceedings. #With the Left putting its best efforts to prevent Trinamul from ruffling its feathers, leaders, who did not divulge how they would reach the majority mark, are confident of winning the elections.Nantu Paul, the mayoral candidate of Trinamul and leader of the party at SMC, said. "fielded in the posts of mayor and chairman. #and Observers said since the Congress while commenting on the tug of war and Trinamul's strategy to poach the Left, said the contest would be more interesting as both BJP and Congress councilors have decided to abstain from voting. "Both Congress and BJP have passed a whip, instructing their councilors to abstain from voting. As there are six councilors from these two parties, their abstinence will bring down the number of total votes to 41, which means, anybody securing 21 votes, will win," observers said.

Nantu Pal

As both the Left and Trinamul are gearing up for the elections, preparations were in full swing at the SMC office for tomorrow's oath-taking by new councillors. A dais has been raised on the SMC premises, with officials monitoring the arrangements.

"Around 5,000 invitation cards have been printed and most of them have been collected by CPM leaders and workers," said an SMC source.

All 47 councillors will take oath in the conference hall of the SMC around 1pm tomorrow. At 2pm, Trinamul councillor Krishna Paul will preside over the elections to the mayor's and chairman's posts, which would be held through secret ballots. Then, the ballots will be counted and the winners announced.

"The district magistrate will administer the oath to the new mayor and the chairman. Then the new mayor and chairman will take charge in their respective chambers. After that, the mayor and the chairman will attend a felicitation programme on the dais erected on the SMC compound," said a source.