Cong councillor served show-cause notice

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Jan. 2: Following instruction from the district Congress president, Mrs Rubi Noor, the general secretary, Mr Hassan Ali Shah, today issued show-cause notice to Mr Ashok Saha, a congress councillor of the English Bazaar municipality, for boycotting the board meeting called by the Congress-led board, the EBM chief, Mr Narendranath Tiwari said. Though Mrs Rubi Noor told reporters yesterday that the party would issue show cause notice to all the seven rebel councillors, yet due to technical reasons, the party has sent the show-cause notice to only one councillor. The decision was taken after the Congress chairman had to seek cooperation from the CPI-M councillors to place its revised budget to expedite development work and to fulfil the promise of providing basic amenities to the people a few days ago. The local Congress party leaders were embarrassed when it was found out that the LF councillors came forward to rescue the the party chairman from the present crisis, after calling off their boycott in the past two months. It may be noted that out of the seven rebel councillors, five were elected on the Trinamul ticket, one was elected as the Congress and the Trinamul Congress supported an independent candidate and only Mr Ashok Saha was elected on Congress ticket. The seven rebel councillors did not attend the board meeting thrice called by the Congress chairman, Mr Narendranath Tiwari, and expressed a motion of ‘no confidence’ against him by alleging corruption charges. The 11 LF councillors did not attend the last two board meetings in order to create crisis. It may be recalled that 14 non-Left councillors, including the Trinamul and the Bharatiya Janata Party members were elected in EBM. But the CPI-M had formed the board for the first time with the help of cross voting. The Left Front had only 11 councillors out of 25, including an independent one. After one and a half years, the 14 non-Left councillors were united and dislodged from the CPI-M-led board. But after a few months, the Congress led board, supported by the Trinamul district president and councillor, Mr Dulal Sarkar and the BJP councillor, Mr Amlan Bhaduri, has been facing crisis due to internal squabbling among the 14 councillors. The seven rebel councillors, followers of the English Bazaar Congress MLA, Mr KN Choudhury, have maintained silence on their role and the original cause for non-cooperation with the chairman, Mr Narendranath Tiwari. Mr KN Choudhury said: “Mr N Tiwari should be show caused for seeking help from the CPI-M.” Mr Choudhury also told reporters: “The district Congress president was not present when the Congress-led board was formed with the help of the Trinamul and the BJP. Mrs Noor did not dislodge the CPI-M from EBM.”