Kolkata: Amidst the restructuring of Trinamool Congress, which some have termed as infighting between the party’s senior leaders and Abhishek Banerjee’s group rumourly backed by political consultancy company I-PAC, Trinamool got something good to cheer about with party winning four municipalities today.
The results also become significant for the ruling party as it has for the first time got control over Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), along with three other civic bodies.
In a clean sweep in all the four municipal corporations— Asansol, Bidhannagar, Chandannagore and Siliguri, TMC won 198 out of 226 wards.
Siliguri which was considered to be a strong citadel of the Left Front was gradually becoming a stronghold of the BJP, but this time in the civic polls sitting BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh who also contested the civic polls lost to the TMC candidate. CPI (M) heavyweight Ashok Bhattacharya also lost to the TMC and out of 47 wards, the ruling party won over 37 wards.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that more TMC wins, the leaders should become more grounded and work for people.
“It is once again an overwhelming victory of Ma, Mati, Manush. My heartiest congratulations to the people of Asansol, Bidhannagar, Siliguri and Chandanagore for having put their faith and confidence on All India Trinamool Congress candidates in the municipal corporation elections,” said Mamata, who also mentioned that her next aim is industrialization in the state.
Apart from Siliguri, Asansol which is another stronghold of BJP saw TMC winning 91 out of 106 wards. In Bidhannagar, TMC won 39 out of 41 wards while in Chandannagar, TMC got 31 out of 32 wards.
In Asansol, TMC candidate won after a toss
TMC’s Asha Prasad and CPM’s Tanusree Roy both bagged 2358 votes and after a lottery, the TMC candidate was declared victorious.
Though the TMC candidate was officially declared ‘victorious’ the CPM candidate also claimed that she had won and will continue working for the people of Asansol.
According to election commission sources, the history of ‘toss’ was also there before through a 10 paisa coin but now certain changes are made in the toss and the name of two candidates are written on a piece of paper and the presiding officer took out a piece to announce the name of the winner.
In Bidhannagar, two winning candidates and those who are in the race to become the Mayor including Krishna Chakraborty and Sabyasachi Dutta visited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s house.
Former Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Krishna Chakraborty claimed that she will do ‘anything’ whatever TMC supremo will instruct her.
Significantly, it is not only the number of seats, at all the corporations, the party has got two third vote shares.
