Amid pressure from the state government to dissolve the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) after Firhad Hakim's resignation, Mamata Banerjee's crucial meeting with KMC councillors was cancelled on Sunday.
Citing her flight to Delhi for the June 8 INDIA bloc meeting, Mamata skipped the crucial KMC meet, which was to decide the fate of the corporation and its 136 TMC councillors—of which eight have been arrested so far on various charges.
Since it was already known before that she would be flying to Delhi on Sunday, the cancellation of the KMC meet has raised eyebrows.
A Sangbad Pratidin report claimed that the party is now preparing to call the councillors for a secret meeting to elect Hakim's replacement, with former mayor Sovan Chatterjee and Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh touted as the frontrunners for the post.
Speculations are rife that the party's top leadership had cancelled the meeting at the last minute as the party's councillors were reportedly hesitant to arrive at the Trinamool Bhavan for a number of reasons.
One of the major reasons was the fear of a possible BJP protest at the meeting, which might even have led to public protests at the site of the meeting.
As in the case of Abhishek Banerjee's visit to post-poll victims in the Sonarpur region of the South 24 Parganas district, that could mean eggs, stones, and 'thief' chants being thrown, which would be damaging for the party's optics ahead of Mamata's participation in the INDIA bloc meeting.
Another possible reason was the hesitation of the councillors, which itself could lead to low turnout at yet another meeting, after the Friday meeting at Mamata's Kalighat residence saw just eight of the party's 80 MLAs attend—and six of its 41 MPs—in attendance.
A number of councillors have also openly expressed anger against the party's moves in the wake of its recent Assembly election loss.
