Trinamool Congress sweeps West Bengal civic elections; leaves the Left trounced in its bastions and the Congress red-faced in the aftermath civic bodies, including th CONGRESS HUMBLED Reacting, Pranab Mukherjee said, "I will like to congratulate Mamata Banerjee for her excellent performance both in Kolkata and also in the districts. I accept the failure of the Congress." LEFT ADMITS DEFEAT Senior state CPM leader Md Salim said that the CPM has admitted defeat. The Left Front fared badly in many municipalities considered Red Bastions North 24 Parganas, Bankura and Purulia
THE Trinamool Congress has wrested control of the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). The party also bagged the adjoining Salt Lake (Bidhannaar) Municipality and some other municipalities across the state from the Left Front and Congress. The results of the 81 municipalities and municipal corporations were declared on Wednesday. Elections to the civic bodies, held on May 30, was crucial and considered the semifinals before next year's Assembly elections.
The poll results are a huge blow to the Left Front, which had been in control of 54 of the 81 civic bodies, including the KMC. e KMC.
Trinamool Congress won 95 seats, a gain of 53 seats from the previous election, while the Left Front won 33 seats, a loss of 42 seats. The Congress won 10 seats, which was 5 less than the last time. Others captured three.
Apart from KMC, in 80 other municipalities and municipal corporations, Trinamool Congress got absolute majority in 26 civic bodies, Left Front in 18 and Cong ress got absolute majority in 7.
The results of the rest of the civic bod ies are hung and the Trinamool Congress cannot form the board without the support of the Congress.
Reacting to the results of the civic polls, Mamata Banerjee said, "It is a historic victory of the ma-mati-manush (mother, land and the people). They have given a verdict in favour of political change in the state. I salute the people."
Mamata Banerjee also demanded that Assembly elections should be held sooner than scheduled. "This results shows that the Left Front Government has lost the right to be in power as the verdict goes against them," she said.
This is the first major election in the state where Trinamool Congress fought it alone after their seat understanding with the Congress failed. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "I accept the verdict of the people with all humility." Mamata Banerjee's runaway victory in the Kolkata municipal elections has shown that her hunch that the Trinamool Congress is now the number one party in West Bengal was right. This assessment has also been confirmed by her party's success in a larger number of municipalities than the Left in the rest of the state. The fact that the communists are not too far behind the Trinamool outside Kolkata also indicates that they retain a modicum of support.
However, if, in her hubris, Mamata Banerjee hadn't snapped her ties with the Congress and fought the elections jointly, the communists would undoubtedly have been in deep trouble.
The results suggest that if the Congress and the Trinamool Congress rebuild their alliance, the Left will suffer huge reverses in next year's Assembly elections. But given the railway minister's whimsical ways, no one can say for certain whether the alliance can be revived. Since the Congress has been relegated to the third position in the state, it has hardly any bargaining power left. Considering that its demands for a greater number of seats were rejected by Mamata Banerjee before the latest polls, the Congress can expect similar treatment when the time comes for seat adjustments before the Assembly polls -if at all the ties are restored.
What is more, now that she is the unchallenged numero uno in her state, the Trinamool leader may begin to act even more casually with regard to attending Cabinet meetings and her office in Delhi. Such behaviour may have affected her image in New Delhi, but the West Bengal electorate is apparently too intent on needling the comrades to bother about what is happening in distant Delhi. The Congress at the Centre, therefore, may have to quietly swallow her tantrums because her present position is stronger than the DMK's because the latter has to run a government in alliance with the Congress in Chennai.
In contrast, the Congress in West Bengal will be happy even if it is grudgingly accepted as very much a junior partner by Mamata Banerjee before the Assembly elections.
The beleaguered and besieged Left, to quote Prakash Karat's reported comments to Eric Hobsbawm, is evidently staring defeat in the face unless a miracle happens with Mamata Banerjee committing an egregious blunder. Its downslide, which began with the 2008 panchayat polls and continued through last year's parliamentary elections, shows no signs of stopping.
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