TMC Records Landslide Victory in KMC Polls, Mamata Banerjee’s Hold in West Bengal Continues
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Continuing its winning streak, the Trinamool Congress swept the elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation again annihilating the challenge of the BJP and virtually wiping out the left parties and the Congress which maintained a mere token presence in the all important civic body in West Bengal.
Though the BJP’s hold was further reduced in the state’s major urban centre, the party said it was not surprised and rather it was lucky that it could still win three seats. The party’s spokesman Shaumik Bhattacharya calling the KMC elections and its results a “big farce,” said sarcastically that the BJP expected the TMC to win all the seats considering the “kind of violence and booth-rigging that took place” in Sunday’s polling for the civic body. Both the BJP and the CPM have moved the Calcutta High Court seeking fresh elections. The case will be heard on December 23.
The BJP, however, still emerged the second largest party, though way behind the TMC, with three seats to the TMC’s 134.
The Trinamool Congress which had won 213 seats against the BJP’s 77 in the elections to the state Assembly in April-May this year, registered a landslide victory in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, winning 134 of the 144 wards. The BJP which had emerged as the main opposition party in the Assembly polls earlier this year, won three seats, while the Left Front and Congress won two each. The Independents, with three seats, ended an equal footing with the non-TMC parties.
Within minutes of the results, one of the victorious independents joined the TMC and the remaining two said they too were keen to join the ruling party “to serve the people better.” The CPM, that in the past ruled over West Bengal for an uninterrupted 31 years before it yielded grounds to the TMC in the last decade, recorded a better vote share than the BJP in the KMC elections even improving from its vote share it received in the Assembly elections.
In 2015, when the KMC elections were last held (they were put off last year due to Covid), the TMC had won 124 wards, the Left 13, the BJP 5 and Congress two.
The TMC got nearly three-fourths of the votes cast (71.95%), the Left Front 11.13% and BJP 8.94%. The Congress got just 4.47% of the votes, while 3.25% people voted for Independents.
The TMC not only increased its vote share from the 2015 KMC polls, by as much as 22%, but also saw its votes rise from the March-April Assembly polls, when compared with the KMC wards, by 11%. The BJP’s comparative vote share was 6% below 2015, and 20% lesser than the Assembly polls; and the Left’s 13% less than the 2015 polls, but 7% more than the Assembly elections.
Congratulating TMC workers, West Bengal Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee said: “It is a victory of democracy and the people. The election was held like a festival. People exercised their franchise peacefully.”
The Opposition parties which cried foul over the TMC’s alleged high-handed behavior and had sought Central forces to monitor polling, have said their polling agents were driven out of booths and candidates beaten up during Sunday’s voting. Crude bombs went off at three places, leaving three injured. There was about 64% polling and more than 200 arrests.
Though it won only three seats, the Left emerged second in 65 wards. The BJP came second in 48, the Congress in 16 and Independents in 5. The TMC heavyweights, including former Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, ex-deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, Debasish Kumar, Mala Roy, Tarak Singh and his son and daughter, Paresh Pal, Sushanta Ghosh and Kajari Banerjee, the sister-in-law of Mamata Banerjee, all won.
Independent candidate Rubina Naaz, who won from ward number 135 and is the wife of a local TMC leader, declared she will join TMC immediately. Two other independent candidates, Purbasha Naskar and Ayesha Kaniz, said they too were willing to join the TMC. “We can work more for the people if we are with the ruling party,” said Kaniz, who is the wife of TMC’s dissident leader Irfan Ali Taaj.
Banerjee said the BJP and Left have been washed away. “The Congress has been sandwiched between these two losers. This reflects on national politics as well. …Bengal and Kolkata will show the path to the people of India,” said Mamata Banerjee as the TMC is trying to make inroads into poll-bound Goa and other states.
The TMC swept back to power in the state this summer by winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly.
In a tweet, Banerjee said: “Heartiest congratulations to all candidates for your victory in the KMC elections. Remember to serve people with utmost diligence and gratitude! I wholeheartedly thank every single resident of KMC for putting their faith on us, once again.”
