History continued to repeat in Bengal even as the Trinamool Congress decimated the Opposition by gaining a brute majority in the recently concluded civic elections in Bengal . The State ruling outfit won 102 out of 108 municipal boards.
A day after senior leader and TMC MP Saugato Roy criticized “unnecessary violence and booth capture” in the municipal elections the Trinamool on Wednesday netted 95 percent boards getting an overall vote of 63-plus percent.
While the Left Front managed to win only one municipality of Taherpur in Nadia district principal opposition BJP won none. One board went to “others” while four others were left with hung houses.
Curiously the newly formed Hamro Party sprung a major surprise, bagging the Darjeeling municipality winning 18 out of 32 wards. The traditional Hill outfits like Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or Gorkha National Liberation Front failed to win the voters’ trust.
The BJP which has an MP from Darjeeling could win no seat there. The ruling TMC secured little more than 63 percent votes overall while the Left pushed the BJP back to third position winning 14 percent votes.
The Left had secured about 7.5 percent in 2019 parliamentary elections and 5.5 percent votes in 2021 Assembly polls. The saffron outfit which got 38 percent votes in the last year’s Assembly elections got about 13 percent votes while the Congress and “others” secured 5 percent each.
In terms of wards won, the TMC won about 1728 wards out of 2171 that went to polls. The BJP won in 65 wards while the Left and the Congress won 59 and 57 each. The Independent candidates, mostly dissenters from the TMC won 113 wards.
More history was made with the Contai --- a stronghold of the Adhikari family held for the last thirty years by former Union Minister Sisir Adhikary, his son and Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu --- going into the hands of the TMC.
The Trinamool won 18 out of 21 wards in the Contai or Kanthi Municipality. The BJP got two wards. History was also created in Behrampore municipality in Murshidabad district considered a stronghold of Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
The Trinamool Congress won this municipality after 30 years. Joyngar in South 24 Parganas also came to the TMC for the first time.
Curiously both Adhikaris and Chowdhury who had for most of their career fought fierce political battles with the Left Front had managed to save their strongholds from the Marxists.
A fuming Chowdhury reacted to the TMC victory saying, “TMC has won with the help of goons and police,” calling for a mock vote. “I call all concerned for a mock vote and if the TMC wins even a single ward I will quit politics,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that “this was no election …we had to fight against criminals and the State repression … though we
should have put up more resistance … this election will leave no organizational impact on our party and we will continue to remain in Bengal.”
The Left Front attacked the Trinamool with one of its former MPs saying, “Mamata Banerjee’s aggression can be equated with that of Putin’s.”
Ignoring the Opposition attack and apparently putting her stamp on the alleged electoral violence Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee advised her party men to “work with sincerity and be humble to the people as this victory has given us more responsibility.”
Before flying off to Varanasi where she would campaign for Samajwadi Party the Chief Minister said “there were many places like Joynagar where we won never in our life … but won this time round … this means our schemes like Duare Sarkar, Paraye Samadhan (solution at your locality) Kanyashree etc have given us more credibility.”
She tweeted, “Heart-felt gratitude to Ma-Mati-Manush for according yet another overwhelming mandate to us. Congratulations to the winning candidates of All India Trinamool Congress in the Municipal Elections.”