Congress helps Asok pass budget

TT, Siliguri: At a time when political relations among the Left and Congress have reached the last dregs in Bengal over the issue of fielding candidate for Raja Sabha from the state, CPM leader and Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya managed to win support of Congress councillors to pass the budget of the civic body here.

On Thursday, the annual budget of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) was put for voting. All the four Congress councillors present at the meeting supported the budget.

Later, they tried to clarify their move by saying that the mayor has accepted all their proposals and will incorporate those into the budget.

Without their support, the Left, who are minority in terms of numbers and have 22 councillors in the 47-ward municipality, would not have been able to pass the budget.

This move by Congress has been interpreted as a "local level adjustment" by a section of political analysts.

"It has hardly anything to do with situation in state politics and was just a local arrangement made by leaders of both parties," said an analyst.

Sources said that even though margins have widened between Congress and Left leaders on the Rajya Sabha candidate issue, Asok Bhattacharya did not hesitated to meet and speak with the Congress councillors to help him in passing the budget.

"The budget was passed with the support of Congress councillors. We will continue to work for improvement of civic services in the city," said Asok.

Some other observers however, pointed that the trend of "political aberration" is still prevalent in political arena of Siliguri.

"Since 2009, when Left had voted the mayoral candidate of Congress to keep Trinamul at bay, this political aberration, or in other words, the tacit understanding among the Left and Congress unlike other places, have been witnessed time and again. The trend seems to continue, despite cracks in relations among the parties in the state level," an observer said.

A Congress leader based in Siliguri, when asked whether their decision to support the civic budget here would go well with their state leaders - the CPM has even demanded cancellation of the candidature of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who has filed nomination from Bengal in the Rajya Sabha - said they were left with no other option.

"If we had not supported the budget, it would have affected civic services and had caused inconveniences for residents," said Sujoy Ghatak, leader of the Congress party in SMC.