The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday took control of the Bhatpara Municipality, its first civic body in West Bengal, weeks after the party made inroads in the state by winning 18 Lok Sabha seats, PTI reported. The BJP’s win came a week after at least 50 Trinamool Congress councillors switched over to the BJP.
Bhatpara comes under the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency. The BJP has never run a civic body in the state.
Saurav Singh, a councillor from ward 20, was elected chairman of the board on Tuesday morning. Sourav Singh won 26 votes in the civic body of 34 wards. The remaining eight councillors were absent, PTI reported.
Sourav Singh is the nephew of Barrackpore Lok Sabha MP Arjun Singh – a former four-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Bhatpara Assembly seat. He was also the chairman of the Bhatpara municipality since 2010. Arjun Singh was removed from the post in April after a no confidence motion was passed against him. He had switched over to the BJP in March ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
“Arjun Singh is our leader. We will be guided by his advice,” the Hindustan Times quoted Saurabh Singh as saying.
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