WB-PARTIES 2

"We feel if someone wants to join some other party then "We feel if someone wants to join some other party thenthey should have the guts to resign and contest polls on TMCticket," Mannan said. According to TMC sources, the party is eyeing theMurshidabad district, stronghold of state Congress presidentAdhir Chowdhury Of the seven municipalities in the district which werecontrolled by either Congress and CPI(M) after the 2015municipal polls, TMC has taken over four municipalities withcouncillors of Left Front and Congress switching over to TMCin the last one year. Senior TMC leader and state Transport minister SuvenduAdhikari, who is in charge of the party organisation inMurshidabad district told PTI, "There will be no sign ofCongress politically in Murshidabad and Malda districts indays to come. We will also take over the Murshidabad ZillaParishad and rest of the municipalities by the end of thisyear." Asked whether it was in sync with the principle ofparties in Bengal, which has rarely witnessed such instancesof public representatives switching to ruling dispensation inpast, Adhikari countered, "It is not a question of moralvalues. "If someone wants to come and join the developmentprocess how can you stop them? We are not forcing anyone tojoin TMC.Everybody is doing it on his/her own,". The trend of switching over to the ruling side hadstarted in Bengal after TMC’s coming to power in 2011. Nine Congress MLAs and three Left MLAs had switched overto TMC by the end of its five year term in 2016. Commenting on the defections, state Congress PresidentAdhir Chowdhury told PTI, "Those who are switching over to TMCshould have the moral values to contest on a TMC ticket andwin from the same assembly segment". MORE PTI PNT SUS MMDV