West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress gained control of the 144-member Kolkata Municipal Corporation clinching nearly 72 per cent of votes, in a ringing endorsement for the party seven months after its landslide win in the state assembly polls.
As per PTI report, Mamata Banerjee’s party won 134 seats to post a hat-trick of wins, decimating a frail challenge from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left Front and the Congress, officials said.
The BJP, which lost much of its steam after the assembly poll defeat, managed to win just three wards, a senior State Election Commission official said.
The Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front bagged two wards each, and Independents three.
The Left Front, despite the mauling, finished second to the TMC in terms of vote share.
“I want to dedicate this triumph to the people of the state and ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’ (mother, land and people – TMC slogan for many years). Several national parties like the BJP, the Congress, and the CPI-M fought against us, but they were all defeated. This is a victory of a daughter of the soil. This victory will show the way in national politics in days to come,” a visibly pleased Banerjee told reporters outside her residence.
Riding the momentum of its massive victory in the state polls and the recent UNESCO ‘Intangible Heritage’ tag for Kolkata’s Durga Puja, the TMC bagged about three-fourths of the votes polled.
The TMC bagged 71.95 per cent of the votes polled, whereas the Left Front and the BJP bagged 11.13 and 8.94 per cent respectively.
The Congress clinched 4.47 per cent of the votes and Independents 3.25 per cent.
The TMC got 22 per cent votes more than the 2015 KMC polls and increased its vote share by 11 per cent compared to the April-May assembly elections.
Reacting to the polls , Congress leader in Lok Sabha AR Chowdhury on Kolkata civic polls told ANI, Several incidents of violence took place during the elections. There was no need for these kinds of violence. CM Mamata Banerjee had promised people for the peaceful conduct of the election but she herself broke it.
