Congress to form Mangaldai Municipality Board, wins five seats

From our Correspondent

MANGALDAI, February 12: The Congress has maged to win the battle for supremacy in the Mangaldai Municipality Board (MMB) by winning five out of 10 seats. Significantly, the BJP for the first time has made its entry to the civic body in the district headquarters with three seats while the Asom Ga Parishad (AGP) has miserably failed to make its presence felt in Mangaldai, known as the 'birth place of Assam Agitation'. Though Congress failed to get the absolute majority, yet it has been emerged as the largest party and with support from an Independent candidate, it will form the Board after a long gap of 20 years. This has been termed as the significant response of the citizens to the pace of the development activities initiated by local MLA and Minister for Fisheries, Water Resource Basanta Das.

In the ten wards of MMB, Congress candidates Smita Rani Das (Ward No. 1), Bharati Das (Ward No. 2), former staff of Spice Jet Jahara Begum (Ward No. 5), former Chairperson of MMB Rumi Kalita (Ward No. 6) and sports organizer and the pioneer in photo jourlism in Darrang district Pratap Bordoloi (Ward No. 10) came out victorious. BJP candidates Manik Chandra Seal Sarma (Ward No. 3), Mrili Bora (Ward No. 7) and former ward Commissioner Girish Saikia (Ward No. 9) for the first time made their entry into the civic body. Independent candidates Jinkul Ali (Ward No. 8) and wife of former vice-chairman Ajay Paul (Ward No. 4) emerged victorious.

Significant losers are former chairman Paran Das of AGP (Ward No. 10), former Chairman of MMB Ratul Saharia (Ward No. 10), former chairperson of MMB Rupali Das (Ward No. 4) and her husband Subrata Das (Ward No. 3). On the other hand, the BJP won seven seats in the Kharupetia Town Committee (KTC) polls while the Congress won only one seat out of the total eight seats.