Goutam Deb resigns as Siliguri Mayor, gives up his security detail

TMC leader Goutam Deb formally resigned from the post of Mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation on Friday morning. Deb submitted his official resignation letter directly to the Municipal Commissioner and immediately relinquished his government vehicle along with his state-provided security detail. The sudden development has sent shockwaves through the regional political landscape, upending the administrative equations in North Bengal's premier trading hub more than a year before the civic board's tenure was scheduled to expire.

The high-profile exit follows the party's recent structural losses in North Bengal during the 2026 assembly elections, where Deb suffered a crushing electoral defeat in the Siliguri constituency. In an attempt to re-engineer regional operations, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had recently appointed Deb as the chairman of the party's Darjeeling district committee, intending for the veteran leader to distance himself from municipal governance and focus exclusively on grassroots organizational recovery. However, sources close to the outgoing mayor indicate deeper internal disillusionment, hinting that Deb might soon resign from all remaining organisational responsibilities and potentially part ways with the party altogether.

This resignation marks a dramatic shift in Deb's extensive political career, which spans over a decade at the helm of North Bengal's governance. Following the historic change of guard in West Bengal in 2011, he was chosen as the state's first-ever Minister for North Bengal Development, subsequently taking charge of the state Tourism portfolio in 2016. Despite his immense regional stature, Deb faced consecutive losses in the 2021 assembly polls from Dabgram-Phulbari and the recent 2026 state elections, severely diminishing his leverage within the central 'Kalighat' leadership despite having delivered a historic single-handed civic majority for the TMC in the 2022 municipal polls.