Abdul Mannan dares Bhuiyan to quit

Kolkata: Seventeen Behrampore municipality Congress councillors defected to the Trinamool on Sunday but the telling blow to the party leadership is perhaps yet to come. Congress MLA Manas Bhuiyan, said sources, with party-general secretaries Ajoy Ghosh, Kanak Debnath, Khalid Ebadullah and Manoj Pandey, might join the Trinamool.

But Opposition leader Abdul Mannan dared Bhuiyan to quit the Congress. "Let him put in his papers first. Till then, I will continue to issue orders," he told reporters in Kharagpur, where he met former party MLA Gyansingh Sohanpal. Taunting Bhuiyan's tirade against West Midnapore SP Bharati Ghosh, Mannan smirked: "What will he call her now: aunty?"

But bolstered by the back-to-back defections, Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee said at the party headquarters in Kolkata, "(Adhir) Chowdhury should resign from the party as elected members from his district are queueing up to join Trinamool. With its control over Berhampore, the Trinamool now rules five out of the seven civic bodies in

Murshidabad

. The other two will also be with us in a month."

In Behrampore, transport minister Subhendu Adhikari announced Rs 3 crore to build a swimming pool and promised to set up 68 jetties connecting Farakka to Haldia. Behrampore municipality chairperson Nil Ratan Adhya was among the Congress councillors who joined the Trinamool on Sunday. "It is clear the Trinamool, under Mamata Banerjee, is working on development in the state. We want to make Behrampore a model city under her guidance," Adhya said.

(With inputs by Sujay Khanra and Sukumar Mahato)