Asim Dasgupta to lead CPM in race for bidhannagar civic body

KOLKATA: The CPM on Sunday declared that former finance minister Asim Dasgupta will be its mayoral candidate for the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections scheduled for October 3.

"We will fight the elections under the leadership of Dasgupta," Goutam Deb, a CPM central committee member and the party's North 24-Parganas district secretary, said while announcing the names of the candidates for the upcoming civic polls.

Former CPM legislator Rabin Mandal and Ramala Chakraborty, widow of former sports and transport minister Subhas Chakraborty, were also named as candidates. The CPM list came after rivals Trinamool Congress and BJP declared their candidates for the polls.

Trinamool has fielded Tapas Chatterjee, who defected recently from the CPM camp, with the hope of eating into the CPM vote bank. Chatterjee had also served as chairman of the municipality earlier. Deb, however, vowed to take all steps to defeat the former comrade.

A few months ago, CPM had won the Siliguri Municipal Corporation polls by fielding former Left Front minister Ashok Bhattacharjee as mayoral candidate. It is not clear whether the CPM's Siliguri formula will work in case of Bidhannagar elections as well. But senior Trinamool leaders have admittedly privately that by fielding Dasgupta, the CPM has made their job of retaining the civic body tougher.

"Dasgupta's clean image and his experience as finance minister will definitely help the CPM put up a tough fight.Moreover, he is a resident of Bidhannagar which gives him a higher edge," a senior Trinamool leader told ET on condition of anonymity.

This year, Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality has been merged with the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.