Cry to remove MLA as district chief

TT,  Oct. 5: A day after Alipurduar MLA Sourav Chakraborty was stripped of the Tea Directorate chairman's post, some Trinamul leaders said they wanted him to be removed as the party's Jalpaiguri district president.

State education minister Partha Chatterjee will replace the MLA at the directorate.

"Our party supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee had put Sourav Chakraborty in the post. We believe it is her decision to remove him and give the responsibility to Partha Chatterjee," Kalyan Chakraborty, the former district president of Trinamul in Jalpaiguri, said today.

The leader has been vocal against Chakraborty and also written to the state leadership asking them to remove the MLA as the district president.

"He (Sourav Chakraborty) holds two other government posts. Added to these are his responsibilities as the party president of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. In the recent past, we observed that there has been absence of consistent political activity by the party in Jalpaiguri. Regular programmes are necessary to augment and retain the support base. It seems the district president cannot spare time," Kalyan Chakraborty said.

Sourav is also the chairman of Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority and Jalpaiguri Central Co-operative Bank. He is based in Alipurduar.

Some Trinamul leaders referred to the recent subscription issue involving filmmaker Arindam Sil. "Most members of the club that had demanded Puja subscription from Sil were Trinamul supporters and close to Sourav. There are reports that Sourav did not intervene even after Sil spoke to him. What happened hasn't gone down well with the state leaders," said a source.