Long-time Congress councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation joins Trinamool

KOLKATA: A senior Congress councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mala Roy on Saturday left the party and joined Trinamool Congress. Ruling party leaders here said that Mala will contest the April elections to the KMC on a Trinamool Congress ticket from the same KMC ward which she has been representing for long. Mala's husband and former Congress MLA Nirbed Roy is often seen on television channels speaking for the party.

The Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Saturday escorted Mala to the state administrative headquarters at Nabanna where she met the chief minister Mamata Banerjee and held talks for about half an hour. Later, Trinamool Congress sources announced that Mala has left the Congress to join them.

State congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said "the councillor has joined Trinamool as she expects something from the ruling party. I shall not talk to her and I feel that it will be unwise for me to talk to such leaders and try to convince them to stay with us. These leaders are senior ones and taking such decisions on their own. Why should I try to refrain her from joining Trinamool Congress ?"

Trinamool sources said that more key Congress councillors will join them before the April civic elections. It is learnt that Trinamool will announce on Sunday the list of their candidates for the KMC elections. Mala has joined the ruling party just a day before release of it's candidates list on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the BJP is attempting to keep in touch with those disgruntled Trinamool Congress councillors who might not get re-nomination this time for the KMC elections. BJP sources said that they might offer tickets to some of these dissident Trinamool councillors who will not get nomination this time.

It is learnt that the BJP will release the first list of it's candidates for the KMC elections by March 10. The party wants to see Trinamool's list which is likely to be released on Sunday and then contact those ruling party councillors whose names would not appear in the Trinamool's list. "Let Trinamool release their list of candidates tomorrow. We will take one or two more days to announce the first list of our candidates and you can expect the same by March 10 or 11," a senior BJP leader said on Saturday.