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SILCHAR, Sept 6: Manesh Das and Swapan Dev of the Gautam Roy camp are all set to become the chairpersons of Karimganj and Hailakandi Municipality Boards respectively. Similarly, Babli Das’s chance of becoming the first woman chairperson in Badarpur Town is also bright, as she is reportedly backed by the Excise Minister. On the other hand, in case of Lala Town committee, there is a close competition between Namita Das and Nandita Das. Meanwhile, the Roy camp has claimed that the Minister has kept himself completely aloof from the rat-race for the post of chairman in the four civic bodies.
Sources said, Manash Das, a popular and young physician of Karimganj was the preferred to his incumbent Srikanta Bhattacharjee. The Congress had 14 ward commissioners, six independent commissioners and remaining seven were from the BJP in the Karimganj Municipal Board. A maximum of elected representatives belong to the age group of 35-45, whereas Bhattacharjee has already crossed 60 years of age. A source close to Roy hinted that the young ward commissioners preferred their representative Manash Das as the chairman and this seemed to be the trump card for him. District Congress president Satu Das Roy, though a close aide of Roy, had reportedly preferred Bhattacharjee, but Satubabu was apparently in backfoot as the party candidates in his own ward was defeated. Satubabu had already declared that if the elected representative fail to elect their leader unanimously, the chairman would be elected through a secret ballot.
In case of Hailakandi, Roy had virtually decided in favour of Swapan Dev, bypassing his close aide Ranjit Saha. Sources close to Roy said, Dev was more active than Saha, who was the chairman of the previous board. Projects done during Saha’s tenure were actually brought by Dev who chaired the Board prior to Saha. (Source – Sentinel Assam)