In a first, Asoke to attend CM meet at Uttarkanya

Five patients in Kurseong had returned from Delhi. As CM Mamata Banerjee is set to arrive in Siliguri on Monday, the veteran CPI-M leader and chairman of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation BoA, Asok Bhattacharya, said this was the first time that he had been invited to a meeting to be conducted by the chief minister

SANKHA GHOSH, SNS, SILIGURI. 27 SEPTEMBER 2020: The chairperson of the board of administrators (BoA) at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), Asok Bhattacharya, is scheduled to attend an administrative meeting to be chaired by Chief Minister M am ata Banerjee at Uttarkanya here on 30 September.

Sources said that the invitation to the meeting extended by administrative officials holds significance, as this will be for the first time any senior Marxist leader will be attending a meeting held by Miss Banerjee in the goverment's branch secretariat for north Bengal.

As the mayor and Siliguri MLA, Mr Bhattacharya had written to Miss Banerjee, requesting for a meeting for discussions on problems related to Siliguri town. However, the requests had not fielded results.

According to political experts, the development can be seen through "political angles" ahead of the Assembly elections.

"The development is significant in today's context. It can be a move of Miss Banerjee to keep the CPI-M in good humour to keep the BJP Party at hay, as Siliguri has been a stronghold of the Left," said a political analyst.

Mr Bhattacharya, meanwhile, has said their fight is against both the Trinamul Congress and the BJP "It is not an issue of mercy and we are not children to be convinced for political purposes," he said today. Mr Bhattacharya has been training guns at the state government for alleged non-cooperation and discrimination with the civic body in the past five years.

"I wrote a letter to the chief minister, seeking her appointment to discuss some problems of Siliguri. I received a phone call from the Darjeeling district magistrate, inviting me to attend the administrative meeting of the chief minister. However, I have not received any official letter so far," he said.

Mr Bhattacharya said this was for the first time he had been invited in a meeting to be held by the chief minister.

However, the sabhadhipati of the Left-run Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, Tapas Sarkar, has not been invited to the meeting, it is learnt.

The chief minister is arriving in Siliguri on a four-day tour tomorrow for the first time after the Covid- 19 outbreak She will hold review meetings of five north Bengal districts, officials said.

In May, the state government had to change an order, dropping five Trinamul Congress councillors from the BoA to be led by Mr Bhattacharya as the chairperson to oversee services in the town in view of the pandemic after he rejected to accept the order. Later, the state government nominated members of the mayor-in-council of the previous Left-run board in the BoA as proposed by Mr Bhattacharya.