Raiganj (WB): The Left Front formed the board in the North Dinajpur district zilla parishad today after its candidate Lovely Chowdhury was elected the sabhadhipati through lottery following a tie in the election between the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance and the LF.
Out of 26 seats in the zilla parishad, the LF had secured 13 seats, the Congress eight and the Trinamool Congress five in the recently-held panchayat election.
After the Malda district zilla parishad went in favour of the Congress yesterday helped by a Left walk-out, it was speculated that the Congress would return the favour in North Dinajpur.
The district leaders of the Congress and the TMC in a meeting last night, however, decided to form an alliance to fight the LF in the election, though the district Congress president Deepa Dashmunshi had in a press conference two days ago expressed herself against any tie-up.
After both the LF and the Congress-TMC alliance were thus tied with 13 seats each, presiding officer Tushar Kanti Biswas, who is the assistant district magistrate, chose the sabhadhipati through a lottery.
The Congress-TMC then boycotted the election to the post of saha-sabhadhipati which went to LF's Prafulla Kumar Debsingha.
Yesterday, TMC district president Amol Acharya had appealed to the Congress, which had quit from the alliance of the two parties in the state following the TMC's withdrawal from the UPA at the Centre, to join hands.
