Big role likely for Bhaichung Bhutia as TMC mulls change in Hills

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Last year, state Tourism Minister Gautam Deb was removed as the party’s district president and replaced by the then youth wing president Sarkar, who is also a municipal councillor in Siliguri. But as this experiment failed to yield results with the Trinamool not winning any of the six Assembly seats in the district, Mamata began to look for new options for the district chief post, party leaders said.

“The matter was discussed in great depth during the meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium, where party leaders from different districts were present. The announcement regarding the new district president will be made soon,” said a senior TMC leader.

Meanwhile, party insiders said as Bhaichung has never has been part of either the state committee or the district committee, it was likely that Praful Chakraborty would be the new district president while the former footballer would be made the working president. “

It could work effectively to end infighting within the party. Bhaichung could work in bringing the different lobbies together and ending the factionalism and Pratul, with his acceptability, could augment that,” a TMC leader said.

There are also speculations that Bhaichung will be appointed as the chairman of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority.

Bhaichung had lost to CPM’s Asok Bhattacharya in Siliguri in the recently held Assembly polls. Chakraborty had held the post of the district president before Gautam Deb.