A COUNCILLOR has been accused of abandoning his ward after spending the past four months in India.

Yusuf Sidat last went to a meeting in June, and has attended just two since the start of the council year in May.

In that time he has received £3,000 in allowances, meaning taxpayers have paid him the equivalent of £1,500 per meeting.

The member for Queen’s Park has already been expelled from the Liberal Democrat group. Now political rivals have demanded an immediate by-election.

Council bosses say they are unable to get hold of Coun Sidat and confirmed his seat will become vacant if he does not turn up to a meeting before Christmas Day.

Coun Sidat has previously risked the wrath of party leaders by going to India between January and March last year.

Residents were not given a phone number to contact him on the council’s website, and yesterday there was no sign of him at the two addresses listed in his register of member’s interests, in Whitendale Crescent and Walter Street, Blackburn.

Labour Queen’s Park councillor Salim Mulla said: “I have no idea whether he intends to come back or not.

“Constituents have been asking about him, and all I can say is he’s in India.The people who elected him deserve better.”

The borough’s returning officer and council chief executive Graham Burgess confirmed Coun Sidat would be expelled as a councillor if he did not attend a meeting before December 25, the six-month anniversary of his last appearance.

But he has not signed up to any committees, and the council is not meeting before that date, so his departure looks inevitable.

Bosses are currently examining electoral law to see whether a by-election would be held immediately or could be postponed until May’s local elections.

Lib Dem group leader David Foster, who had previously expelled then re-admitted Coun Sidat, said: “We have high expectations of our councillors and all group members sign up to these standards when they join the group.

"Coun Sidat, due to his absence, has failed to live up to these expectations and to provide the standard of service to his constituents that Liberal Democrats demand from councillors, therefore we have had no option but to expel him from the group."

Coun Sidat was first elected in 2004 and retained his seat in 2007 by just five votes.

His expulsion from the Lib Dems leaves Labour as the biggest party with 27 members, but the ruling coalition of Conservative, For Darwen and Lib Dems is on 34 going into May’s election.