SILCHAR, Oct 12: Eyeing the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, former Lower House MP from Silchar and now a Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Sushmita Dev on Tuesday said that ground work for the poll-battle is already underway. She also made it clear that the All India Trinamool Congress will field candidates in the elections to the Silchar Municipal Corporation, as and when it takes place.
In an interaction with the media persons, scion of former Union Minister late Santosh Mohan Dev said, "Former commissioners who are alongside me now will be contesting for seats of councilors in the Silchar Municipal Corporation election. However, I would also prefer that some fresh faces who have a vision for development of Silchar should be given the tickets to contest which is being discussed at the party," Asked if the results of the corporation polls do not match the expectations, Dev said that not just the civic polls, there are many other factors lined up enroute her preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. " For now my task is to work for the party and observe the performances and results of other elections scheduled across other parts of the country to take place before all important Lok Sabha polls.
It may be recalled that Sushmita won from the Silchar Lok Sabha seat as Congress MP in 2014 but lost to BJP's Dr Rajdeep Roy in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She had joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021 and since then rendering her responsibilities of streamlining the strategies of the party for Tripura as entrusted by AITC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Talking on the proposed design of forming the Silchar Municipal Corporation with 3,26,907 lakh population base across 42 wards for which a Gazette notification has been issued on October 7 and claims and objections process has been announced, Dev who was also a former chairman of the Municipal Board said, "According to me, to develop Silchar, there should have been many more wards which would bring more funds for work and development. I have no concerns on the border demarcating the wards, but, ideally, the population strength in each ward should be 5,000-7,000 per ward as the smaller the population strength of wards, the better the administrative efficiency of the wards. Also, people of Silchar must realise that with the transformation into a corporation, the taxes will also increase manifold. Taking a dig at the BJP, Sushmita Dev said, "Municipal Corporation is the backbone of a city. I expect people of Silchar to give opportunity to fresh minds as the BJP has thoroughly failed to provide basic services to the tax paying residents of the town.