Kolkata: Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Krishna Chakraborty resigned from her post on Thursday, citing personal reasons. The development comes a day after Trinamool Congress MLA Firhad Hakim resigned as Kolkata Mayor.
Trinamool Congress has now lost control of both civic bodies in the city. Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is located in the Salt Lake area of Kolkata.
Krishna Chakraborty submitted her resignation letter to the Commissioner of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation on Thursday afternoon. It is learnt that Krishna has also sent a copy of her resignation letter to the state’s Municipal and Urban Development Minister Agnimitra Paul and the Secretary of the department.
Krishna had about eight months left in her term as Bidhannagar Mayor. She served as the Mayor of Bidhannagar for two terms, from 2019 to 2022 and then from 2022 until June 4, 2026. Before 2019, Sabyasachi Dutta was the Mayor of Bidhannagar. Thereafter, Trinamool removed Sabyasachi and brought Krishna in as Mayor. Sabyasachi is currently the Chairperson of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.
While leaving her office on Thursday, Krishna said, “I am resigning for purely personal reasons.” Later, however, she said, “I could not work the way I wanted to. Board meetings were not being held, councillors were not coming. Officers were also busy. I cannot cheat people.”
However, Krishna said that she would continue to work as a councillor, as she has been doing for the past 16 years. She also thanked the people of Bidhannagar for their love and support. While getting into her car, she became a little emotional and said, “Mamata Banerjee is like a mother.”
However, Bidhannagar BJP MLA and state minister Sharadwat Mukherjee took a dig at Krishna Chakraborty over her resignation. He said, “She was sitting on a cushion of money. I came to know about Madam’s 18-19 properties in Bidhannagar. Before revealing them, she went into hiding in shame.”
Krishna is known to be a “close friend” of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. She was once associated with the Youth Congress. That is how she first met Mamata. When Mamata Banerjee left the Congress in 1998 and formed the Trinamool Congress, Krishna joined the new party.
On Wednesday, former state minister Firhad Hakim resigned as Mayor of Kolkata. Trinamool MLA Kunal Ghosh said that Firhad took the decision after taking permission from Mamata Banerjee, although Firhad himself has not commented on the matter yet.
Earlier, Trinamool lost control of the Chandannagar Municipal Corporation in Hooghly district as well. Its Mayor, Ram Chakraborty, resigned from his post, following which an administrator was appointed there.
Since the defeat of the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly elections, there has been a wave of resignations by Trinamool public representatives in various municipalities across the state. The latest addition to that trend is the resignation of the Mayor of Bidhannagar.
–IANS
