2 Congress MLAs, several party councillors join TMC

In a severe jolt to Congress, the party on Wednesday lost two of its MLAs and several councillors to TMC, which took effective control of two Congress controlled municipalities. Congress MLA of Islampur in North Dinajpur district Kanailal Agarwal and Kaliaganj MLA in Nadia district Hasanuzzaman Sk on Wednesday joined TMC in presence of senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.

With the joining of these two MLAs, the tally of the Congress MLAs in state assembly now stands at 39.

In the last two months, three Congress MLAs including former PCC president and senior MLA Manas Bhunia had switched over to TMC. The TMC on Wednesday also served a blow to state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury in his backyard by taking over Murshidabad Municipality with eleven Congress councillors switching over to TMC. The TMC which had only one councillor in the 15member Murshidabad municipality now has 12 councillors.

In Murshidabad district, Congress now controls two municipalities whereas TMC has five municipalities in its fold. The TMC also took over Islampur municipality in Uttar Dinajpur district, with its chairman and MLA Kanailal Agarwal and several of its councillors joining the party.

"The Congress' decision to align with the CPI-M during the last Assembly poll had proved to be a "political harakiri" as the rank and file of the Congress did not accept the alliance. By the end of this year there would be no sign of political presence of Congress and CPI(M) in Bengal as people have rejected this unholy alliance.-PTI