L F leaders do a U-turn

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Feb. 23: The CPI-M chairman of Old Malda Municipality, Mr Biswanath Sukul, has finally managed to pacify three Left Front councillors out of the five who recently brought a no-confidence motion against him in connivance with the Opposition councillors from BJP. The three LF councillors have submitted written letters to the authorities concerned, claiming that they signed the no-confidence notice “without having any knowledge about its content”. Talking to The Statesman, one of the three councillors, said: “I do not know English and I was not aware of the content when I put my signature on that notice. Someone actually misled me.” Although the CPI-M-led board has managed to escape from the rift within the LF, the CPI-M leaders of the district have admitted that it was setback for them.“The no-confidence row has damaged the image of the party here,” a senior CPI-M leader of Malda, said.It may be recalled that four Opposition councillors from BJP had also supported the motion raised by five LF councilors ~ Mrs Gouranga Saha, Mr Paritosh Ghosh and Ms Minati Chakraborty (all from CPI-M), Ms Anjana Burman (RSP) and Ms Renuka Halder (Socialist Party). They had accused the chairman of the civic body, Mr Sukul, of failing to initiate any development work in the municipality area. The 17-member strong Old Malda Municipality has only four Opposition councillors, all from the BJP.The CPI –M enjoys eight seats, RSP four and the Socialist Party one.