BJP seeks Calcutta High Court help on no-trust vote

Source: telegraphindia.com

he BJP on Friday sought the intervention of Calcutta High Court for the peaceful conduct of a no-trust vote at Bongaon municipality, alleging that the Trinamul chairman and his followers had stonewalled the process despite the court’s orders.

Moving a petition on behalf of Dipendra Bairagi and 10 other BJP councillors, advocate Ashok Chakraborty told Justice Samapti Chatterjee: “With the assistance of police, the BJP councillors had been confined to a room at the municipality.”

The BJP has trained its eyes on Bongaon municipality, where Trinamul had an absolute majority with 20 of the 22 councillors.

After the Lok Sabha poll results were announced on May 23, 14 Trinamul councillors defected to the BJP. Shortly afterwards, three of the defectors returned to Trinamul, following which the BJP sought to bring a no-confidence motion against the chairman, Shankar Adhya.

But when the BJP members’ prayer for convening a meeting to move the no-confidence motion was turned down by the SDO last week, they approached Calcutta High Court. Justice Chatterjee ordered the civic authorities to hold the meeting on July 16.

The lawyer representing the BJP said Trinamul had used force to prevent its councillors from attending the meeting. Appearing on behalf of the state, advocate-general Kishore Dutta told the court that a meeting had been held and the councillors had reposed faith in chairman Adhya.

Justice Chatterjee told the advocate-general: “Why is the chairman so crazy? Why is he still continuing in the post when the majority of the councillors have lost trust in him?”

At one point, the judge remarked: “Primarily, I find that a fresh meeting for moving a no-trust motion against the chairman should be held in the presence of the DM and the SP of North 24-Parganas and the SDO of Bongaon.”

Justice Chatterjee told advocate Chakraborty that based on the prayer of his client, she had tried to give them an opportunity. “But now I find that the chairman was so powerful that he had confined his opponents with the help of the police. What is going on here?” she asked.

Justice Chatterjee adjourned the hearing till July 22.