Kolkata, December 21
Seven months after its landslide win in the West Bengal assembly polls, the TMC on Tuesday scored a hat-trick of retaining power in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on the back of a thumping victory, with its candidates winning in 101 out of the 144 wards, and leading in 33 others.
The BJP won one seat and was leading in three wards, a senior State Election Commission official said.
The Congress bagged two wards, but the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which is leading in two seats, is yet to open its account.
Counting of votes for 144 wards of KMC began this morning at 8 am.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thanked the people of the metropolis for the “massive” victory.
“I want to dedicate this triumph to the people of the state and ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’ (mother, land and people – the slogan of TMC). Several national parties like the BJP, Congress, and CPI(M) also fought against us, but they were all defeated. This victory will show the way in national politics in days to come,” Banerjee told reporters outside her residence.
“As per the trends, the TMC is leading in 33 wards and has won 101 seats. It now has a clear majority in the KMC. The BJP is leading in three wards, while its candidate Mina Devi Purohit won from ward number 22. The CPI(M) and CPI are ahead in one ward each and the Congress has won two seats,” the State Election Commission official said.
As per ward-wise trends, although the TMC is way ahead of its rivals and the BJP is in distant second position, in terms of vote share, the Left Front has emerged as the main opposition in most of the wards.
The TMC had swept all the 16 assembly segments in the city in the April-May assembly polls, and the BJP emerged as its main challenger in all the seats and KMC wards in terms of vote share.
TMC candidate in ward number 117, Amit Singh, and Kakoli Bag in ward number 119 were victorious, data on the SEC website showed.
Lok Sabha MP and five-time councillor Mala Roy retained her seat in ward number 88 for the sixth consecutive time, and TMC MLA and sitting councillor Debashis Kumar also won in ward number 85.
TMC MLA and sitting councillor Atin Ghosh won in ward number 11 in north Kolkata. In ward number 118, TMC leader Tarak Singh was victorious for the third consecutive time.
The Congress’ Santosh Pathak and Usman Ansari won ward numbers 45 and 137, respectively.
In ward no 22, BJP’s sitting councillor and former deputy mayor of Kolkata, Mina Devi Purohit won for the sixth consecutive time.
The BJP is leading in ward numbers 23, 41, and 50. The CPI(M) is ahead in ward number 103.
The KMC is divided into 144 administrative wards, which are grouped into 16 boroughs.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also thanked the people of Kolkata for the “huge mandate”.
“People of Kolkata have once again proven that politics of HATE & VIOLENCE have NO PLACE in BENGAL! I thank everyone for blessing us with such a huge mandate. We are truly humbled and shall always remain committed in our goals towards YOUR BETTERMENT! Thank you Kolkata,” he tweeted.
Senior party leader and former Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said this is a victory of the party’s developmental work in the last decade in the city.
“Our development efforts since 2010 was enough to ensure this victory. Right now, we would focus on improved civic services including environmental issues. We would strive to make the city Covid-free in the near future,” Hakim said.
The BJP, however, termed the results as a reflection of the “reign of terror” that the TMC had unleashed.
“This result was expected because free and fair polls didn’t take place in the absence of central forces,” BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya said.
Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty, however, saw a silver lining in the results as in most of the wards, the Left has emerged the main opposition.”
Had the elections been fair, our results would have been much better,” he said.
Sporadic incidents of violence, including hurling of bombs at two booths, marred the KMC elections on Sunday, even as over 63 per cent of the nearly 40.5 lakh voters exercised their franchise.
The TMC has been in power in KMC since 2010.
In the last KMC polls in 2015, it had won 124 seats, whereas the Left Front bagged 13. The BJP and the Congress had secured five and two seats, respectively.
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