Police lathicharged Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters in front of Burdwan Municipality gates here as they agitated demanding that the civic body chairman decided by the party high command be changed.
The party supporters had been vociferously demanding since the beginning of the oath taking ceremony this morning that the name of Samir Ray, who had been elected to the civic body for the eighth straight time, be declared for the post.
Sub-divisional officer(south) Swapan Kundu administered the oath to all the 35 TMC councillors amidst shouting of slogans by the party workers.
Trouble erupted when the councillors, along with three West Bengal ministers - Moloy Ghatak, Rabiranjan Chattopadhyay and Swapan Debnath after a closed-door meeting opened a sealed envelope from the TMC high command and declared the name of a new face, Swarup Dutta for the post.
The party supporters congregated at the municipality gates and began shouting slogans in support of their demand.
Police resorted to lathicharge to disperse them. However, none was injured, the police said.
The name of the new vice-chairman of the municipality and its five chairmen-in-council are yet to be named.
A similar scene was witnessed at Guskara municipality in Burdwan district yesterday and the oath-taking ceremony was called off.
Burdwan, considered a red bastion, had elected TMC to all the 35 seats in its municipality in the civic polls in July. The Left Front lost its hold over the civic body after long 34 years.
