Kolkata: It is only a matter of time before the Trinamool Congress takes over the Bhatpara Municipality. Currently, the Bhatpara Municipality, which comprises 35 wards, has an effective strength of 32. Neither Saurav Singh, BJP leader and chairman of the municipality nor its councillors were present when Trinamool Congress moved the no-confidence motion against him, which was passed by a margin of 19-0 on Tuesday afternoon. "A no-trust vote was held on Tuesday afternoon and we won it by a margin of 19-0. The BJP councillors didnt participate in the proceedings," state food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick said. However, the result was sent to the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court in a sealed envelope. The no-trust vote was held following the order of the Division Bench. Earlier, the Single Bench had scrapped the no-confidence motion moved against the BJP chairman on January as the Bench found some discrepancy in the motion. Trinamool then moved the Division Bench which ordered the no trust to be held on Tuesday but ordered the special officer not to announce the result. The defeat of BJP to retain the municipality under its control clearly shows that Arjun Singh, partys MP from Barrackpore is fast losing his control over his area. Earlier, Trinamool had regained its control over six municipalities — Halisahar, Kanchrapara, Bongaon, Garulia, Naihati and Haringhata — from BJP in North 24-Parganas. Taking advantage of the Model Code of Conduct for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which put the law and order under the Election Commission of India, BJP unleashed a reign of terror in vast areas of North 24-Parganas and took control over seven municipalities. The 34-member Bhatpara Municipality became the first victim of BJPs muscle-flexing after the result of the Lok Sabha elections which was declared in May 2019. At the time twenty-six councillors had joined the BJP. However, of these 26 turncoats who had joined the BJP, 12 rejoined Trinamool Congress in November 2019. Later, seven more councillors rejoined BJP taking the Trinamool strength to 19. It may be mentioned that on January 3, Arjun Singh had said Trinamool Congress will not be able to wrest the civic body at the no-confidence motion. However, his dream was shattered on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, Trinamool had regained Kanchrapara municipality from BJP which was Mukul Roys stronghold. The councillors of Bhatpara Municipality said that no development work had been carried out in the past seven months. Now, with Trinamool taking control over the civic body steps would be taken to expedite all-round development work.

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