Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday registered a landslide victory in the civic elections, winning 70 out of 92 Municipal Boards. In what is widely seen as a precursor to next year’s Assembly elections, the Opposition left came a distant second winning six Boards with the Congress following closely by bagging five municipalities. There were 11 hung houses.
The BJP, which raised some hopes in last year’s General Elections, failed to form any Board though it slightly bettered its position in Kolkata and made minor inroads into some border districts. In an election that would be remembered for unprecedented violence and alleged rigging, the ruling outfit won more than 80 per cent seats in 92 Municipal Boards including the all-important Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
In Kolkata the Trinamool picked up 114 out of 144 seats leaving the left, BJP and the Congress far behind as each of those parties won 15, seven and five seats respectively. In at least eight municipalities including Gayeshpur, Tarakeswar, Arambagh, Kalyani etc there was no opposition at all. In the State Capital, the BJP was clearly unable to repeat its 2014 performance when it took a lead in about 26 wards and came second in about 30 wards. However, the party added four more seats to its 2010 tally of three seats. The party managed to make inroads in the Chief Minister’s own Assembly constituency, wresting ward number 70 from the TMC. The lotus also bloomed in other two wards 86 and 87 in South Kolkata which has been a veritable Trinamool bastion since 1990s.
In districts like Nadia, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas the Trinamool Congress won an unbelievable 85, 87, 86 and 80 per cent seats respectively. Curiously in 2010 when the ruling outfit had a great wave in favour of party chief Mamata Banerjee the Trinamool had won 33 municipalities of 81 while the left had bagged 18. The Congress had got seven boards then. About 40 per cent of the State’s electorate cast their votes in the elections.
There were more abnormalities in the polling pattern with many booths in Kolkata registering between 100 and 140 per cent polling. Curiously a Trinamool candidate in Kolkata won by as much as 30,000 votes whereas average winning margins hovered around 3,000-4,000 votes. “The remarkable point is that in areas of South Bengal which saw limitless violence the Trinamool bagged the maximum seats while in North Bengal where the Opposition parties managed to put up a joint resistance the result was more balanced,” said Biswanath Chakrabarty psephologist.
In North Bengal, the left won the Siliguri Corporation while the Congress won Islampur and Kaliaganj municipalities. Cooch Behar threw up a hung house. Reacting to her party’s stupendous victory, Banerjee said, “Though the Opposition is making all kinds of allegations, from rigging to violence, I think the voting was absolutely peaceful with some stray incidents here and there. The result reflects the true will of the people which was not the case during the last 34 years of the left’s rule.” Attacking the BJP for “introducing communal politics in Bengal,” Banerjee said: “The election results reflect the true mood of the people, who will never tolerate BJP’s communal ways.”
The BJP on its part dismissed the poll results as “product of unparalleled violence.” “There are only two parties that have improved in the elections. While the Trinamool has done better in hooliganism the BJP has done better in increasing its tally from three seats in 2010 to seven seats this time round,” State party president Rahul Sinha said. BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh said: “West Bengal civic polls have created a history of being the most undemocratic elections conducted by the State Election Commission.”