GOALPARA, Feb 10 ? Congress has once again occupied the seat of power in Goalpara Municipal Board. Although the denizens of Goalpara contemplated this immediately after the declaration of results of the civic polls, skepticism prevails whether the new board can or have the mindset to carry out its obligations in the interest of the voters faithfully.
In the last civic polls, out of the 19 wards, Congress candidates came out victorious in seven wards, AGP in five wards, NCP in three wards and BJP in one ward while the remaining three seats went in favour of independent candidates. However, later on Congress managed to win over the independent ward commissioners elected.
To constitute the board, a meeting was held on February 3 last where Archana Varma, deputy commissioner of Goalpara, and Shadid Mazumdar, local MLA and ex-officio member of the board besides the elected civic representatives were present. However, one AGP ward councillor could not attend the meeting.
In the election of chairman and vice-chairman, Abu Syed, elected from ward no 19 (who was chairman for one term earlier) and Deva Kumar Nath, elected from ward no 18 - both now belonging to Congress were elected. Syed and Nath polled 11 votes each while the common opposition candidates Uttam Mallick of AGP and Kamini Kumar Ghosh of NCP could garner 8 votes each for chairman and vice-chairman respectively. Later on the elected persons were given oath of secrecy and were led to the board office.