As was predicted, the ruling Trinamool Congress on Saturday clinched the three civic bodies of Asansol, Bidhannagar and Bally in a violence-marred election that was the last before the next year’s Assembly polls with the Opposition left, BJP and Congress promptly dismissing the whole process as a “farce” and a “moral loss” for the ruling party.
Bdihannagar that experienced maximum violence and booth-capturing last Saturday saw the Trinamool pocketing 37 out of 41 wards leaving two each for the left and the Congress. The BJP which had in the light of last General elections took a lead from about 17 wards won none.
In 106-ward Asansol Corporation from where the BJP’s Babul Supriyo is the sitting MP the saffron party could manage only 8 seats finishing behind left with 17 seats while the Trinamool bagged 74 wards and the Congress 3.
Bally municipality in Howrah district which would now be clubbed with the Howrah Municipal Corporation saw all the 16 wards going in the Trinamool kitty. It is now an Opposition-less House.
Amid complaints of a “blood-curdling terror” by the Opposition the Trinamool polled 76 percent votes 40% more than what it had got in the general elections. The left could manage only about 14 percent votes while the BJP and the Congress got about 6 percent and 2 percent respectively.
In Asansol the Trinamool got more than 47 percent vote, the left got 23 percent while the BJP and the Congress polled 17 percent and 6 percent respectively.
All the Opposition parties had demanded a re-poll in all the three civic bodies complaining massive violence and booth capturing. So much so that in a matter of a few hours as many as 23 journalists were beaten up and hospitalised in an unprecedented attack on the media by alleged Trinamool goons who were ferried and put up in various guest houses the day before the polls.
Incidentally, a ruling party candidate carrying a host of criminal charges against his name won from Salt lake with a record margin of about 9,000 votes, sources said.
The violence and subsequent demand by the Opposition for repolling and a counter agitation against it by the Trinamool saw the earlier State Election Commissioner tendering his resignation and the State Government promptly sending in a sitting Government officer of the IAS cadre, Alapan Bandopadhyaya top fill in the gap.
This led to a writ petition currently being heard in the Calcutta High Court where the petitioners questioned the propriety of an officer with his interests being tied with the Government (Annual Confidential Repot of the said officer is written by the Chief Minister) and who in all likelihood would be resorted in his original position after the polls.
The tradition is an SEC is normally appointed from the retired batch of IAS officers or for that matter an IAS officer who is to join the post is first to resign his office and then assume the charges of the SEC.
The case will be heard on November 19. Experts said if the Court quashes the appointment of the interim SEC then all the decisions taken by him including his decision to reject re-polling in all the booths might stand cancelled.