Trinamool defeats CPI-M in Kolkata civic polls

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress which is in power in the state defeated its rivals Communist Party of India-Marxist CPI (M), Congress and Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) even in a four-way fight to gain power in civic body elections.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) won four of the six civic bodies that went to polls, while the Left Front and the Congress clinched one each in results announced on Tuesday. The elections to the six civic bodies were held on Sunday.

Defeating the Left Front especially in the civic bodies of Durgapur in Burdwan district and Dhupguri municipality in Jalpaiguri district in the north has given much relief to the party since the Left Front was in power in these civic bodies for more than 10 and 15 years respectively.

Taking a dig at media, Mukul Roy, Railway Minister and All-India Secretary of the party, said, “Before the civic elections a section of the media was trying to project that there has been a fall in the popularity of our party and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. However, these results prove that people are very much in favour of development work that our government has undertaken and we enoy full confidence of the people.” But the failure to win the Haldia civic body has dampened the spirits of the TMC leadership. “We will certainly look into the factors that led to our defeat. Though we have increased our tally from four councillors in 2007 to 11 this time, the CPI(M) has performed much better than us to retain the municipality,” said Roy.

The victory of the Left Front in Haldia has come as a surprise to many, especially at a time when Haldia strongman and CPI(M) leader Laxman Seth who is now in police custody on charges of murder during the Nandigram incidents that rocked the state in 2007. This municipality is located close to Nandigram, where Banerjee led a successful protest movement that helped it to rally the rural voters in the state and unseat the Left from power.

Tamalika Panda Seth, the municipality chairperson and wife of Laxman Seth told Gulf News, “in spite of all the malicious campaign by the TMC, our victory only proves that people of Haldia believe that Laxman is innocent and most importantly we had been doing a good job in this area as councilors.”

The Trinamool retained the Panskura municipality in East Midnapore district, but more importantly it triumphed in the Nalhati municipality in Birbhum district. Its a heart break for the Congress as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee, the party legislator from Nalhati, had played an active role in the election campaign.

The Congress had won Nalhati in 2007 but lost control of the board after some of its councilors switched over to the Trinamoool.