Kolkata, June 19 (IANS) Another Trinamool Congress-controlled Municipal Corporation Board in West Bengal is heading for dissolution, as the Mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) in Darjeeling District, Gautam Deb, tendered his resignation from the chair on Friday.

He has forwarded his resignation to the SMC Commissioner, Ashwini Kumar Roy.

With this, SMC is the fourth municipal corporation in the state which is heading for dissolution. The first three were — the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in North 24 Parganas district, and Chandernagore Municipal Corporation (CMC). The mayors of these three urban civic bodies have resigned.

First, the BMC Mayor, Krishna Chakraborty, resigned, followed by KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim, a four-time Trinamool Congress legislator and the former West Bengal Municipal Affairs & Urban Development Minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet.

Soon after that, the CMC Mayor, Ram Chakraborty, also tendered his resignation.

It is learnt that Gautam Deb had a meeting with the members of the mayor-in-council of the SMC on Thursday.

At the meeting, he expressed his desire to resign. However, a section of the members of the mayor-in-council tried to dissuade him from doing so and requested him to continue in that chair till the remaining term of the Trinamool Congress-run SMC board for one more year.

However, Gautam Deb was adamant in his decision.

Deb became the West Bengal Minister of North Bengal Development Department after winning from Dabgram-Phulbari constituency in Darjeeling district in the 2011 Assembly elections.

After being re-elected in 2016, he became the West Bengal Minister for Tourism. In the 2021 elections, he lost to BJP’s candidate Shikha Chatterjee from Dabgram-Phulbari constituency. The Trinamool Congress won the 2022 Siliguri Municipal Corporation elections under Gautam Deb’s leadership, following which he became the Mayor of Siliguri.

In 2026, he could not win as a candidate from Siliguri Assembly constituency. He lost to BJP candidate and current West Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Shankar Ghosh.

–IANS

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