A CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR: Though the magic figure was five wards away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form board for the first time in Hailakandi.
The tactic was simple, ghar wapsi of suspended members, who on being denied nomination by the party, contested the civic body poll as independent candidates, and won. The final tally in 16 wards under Hailakandi municipality election showed independents winning in 10 wards, the BJP finished with six. Sources in the BJP said, six years suspension of three members -Jharna Bhowmik, Sangeeta Debnath and Uma Chowdhury- would be revoked by Monday. The trio were suspended after they filed nomination as independent candidates following the denial of tickets. Apart from these three, the BJP would bring back two other Munna Deb and Raju Chakrabarty.
Patharkandi MLA Krishnendu Paul, who was the observer in Hailakandi, said the independent ward commissioners were willing to join the BJP. State president Bhabesh Kalita will discuss the issue with the district leaders. Paul said that all the independent ward commissioners were BJP workers and if they now wished to come back, there was no harm in it. Paul further said, the party failed to win the election in Hailakandi only because of internal fighting between members. He said even though the BJP won Lala Town Committee, the independents, who were actually BJP members, won in four out of 10 wards.
Former Congress Minister and now a BJP leader, Gautam Roy was the observer in Lala. Further, the independent candidates in Hailakandi were known to be in the close circuit of Roy.
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