The Trinamool Congress continued its winning streak by recording a thumping majority in 71 of the 92 civic bodies in West Bengal, the results of which were declared on Tuesday. The party wrested control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation by winning 114 of the 144 wards.
The Left Front managed to win five municipalities, establishing that it still is the main Opposition force. Despite the offensive it mounted, the BJP failed to win any civic body. The Congress won four. Twelve civic bodies have no clear winner.
In 2010, Trinamool won 66 municipalities. “The victory is an answer to all the slander and canards spread against us,” party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
Senior party sources told The Hindu that the Trinamool was considering advancing the Assembly elections due in mid-2016.
For Trinamool facing serious allegations of corruption, even in the Saradha chit fund scam, the victory comes as a shot in the arm. What makes the victory sweeter for it is that the BJP has come fourth.
BJP suffers loss of face in West Bengal civic polls
Failing to come to power in any municipality in the West Bengal civic elections in which it set much store by, the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to put up a brave face on Tuesday by saying that its tally increased from 10 wards in 2010 to 85 in 2015.
BJP State president Rahul Sinha even sounded optimistic. “We challenge [Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee, we will meet each other in the 2016 Assembly election and will see how her party continues with such ‘goondaism,’” Mr. Sinha said referring to allegations of electoral malpractices.
The BJP has been in a desperate bid to emerge as a political alternative to the Trinamool, with party chief Amit Shah himself mounting an offensive.
“West Bengal civic polls have created history by being the most undemocratic elections … violence, intimidation, voter trauma, terrorisation of opposition candidates … have been its hallmark,” BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said.
For the Left, the five municipalities won is much lower that the 25 it got in 2010. Even in the Kolkata Municipal Council polls, its tally plunged from 33 seats to 15. The Trinamool improved its performance from 95 to 114. The BJP managed to increase its tally from three to just seven, while the Congress’s plunged to five from eight.
Of the 2,090 wards in the State, the Trinamool won an overwhelming 1,425 wards, the Left Front 285, the Congress 186 and the BJP 85.
For the Left Front, the results of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation turned out to be a silver lining by winning 23 of the 47 wards, six more than the Trinamool. The Left Front contested the polls under the leadership of former Minister and senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, Asok Bhattacharya.
The Congress, which was grappling with defections to the Trinamool, maintained its dominance in its strongholds in Murshidabad, Malda and parts of Purulia district.
In the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the Trinamool won 34 seats in the State, the Congress four and the CPI(M) and the BJP two each. With political polarisation in the State, the BJP emerged third in 30 of the 42 constituencies and second in three. The party’s 16.8 per cent vote share put its ascendancy in the 2016 Assembly elections in the realm of the possible in a State where it never had a toehold.
The BJP and the CPI(M) have separately called for a bandh against the West Bengal government on April 30.
