The Trinamool Congress continued to poach the Opposition outfits this time bombarding the so-called impregnable Congress citadel at Murshidabad and taking control of the district board.
Ten opposition members on Friday joined the Trinamool Congress, causing it to take over the district board that had for more than a 15 years been held by the Congress. Out of the ten defectors, 7 belonged to the Congress and three were from CPI(M).
Curiously the Trinamool had won only one seat in the 69-member board in 2013 panchayat elections. Soon after this year’s Assembly elections, in which the Trinamool romped home with an overwhelming majority winning 211 seats 28 Congress members joined the ruling party.
The Trinamool dealt the last nail in the Congress coffin on Friday getting ten more members to cross over to its side thus crossing the magic figure of 35. The Trinamool now has 39 members in district board.
Out of the three parliamentary seats in Murshidabad, the Congress won two and the left won one in the 2014 lok Sabha elections.
Subhendu Adhikary the State Minister and Mamata Banerjee’s pointsman in Murshidabad on Friday said “inspired by the Chief Minister’s massive developmental drive in the State most opposition members are joining us the way they did today. Next week we will make an official move to form the board”.
With Friday’s development all the district boards in the State save Malda has fallen in the Trinamool hands a development, in which the opposition outfits saw an unabashed play of money, muscle and police power.
In the past few months the State has seen more than a dozen boards falling to the Trinamool Congress.
“These people have rendered the State into a virtual casino of sorts where people change parties as money change hands,” said former Minister and Congress MlA Manoj Chakraborty. His mentor and PCC president Adhir Chowdhury had earlier alleged Trinamool had paid Rs 3 crore to a Malda CPI(M) MlA to cross over to the ruling party.
“The biggest contribution of this Government is allowing the State politics to filthiest levels where money, police and muscle power is used to win over the opposition members” said Sujan Chakrabarty CPI(M) legislature Party leader.
“They are first getting gangsters to threaten the elected members of the opposition. If that fails they are offering money. And finally they are getting the district administration to threaten them with criminal cases to force them to switch sides,” said Chakrabarty adding “this will not continue for long. People will take drastic revenge one day.