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Trinamool and Congress alliance sweeps civic polls

Marcus Dam

It bags 13 of the 16 municipalities where polls were held

Totally a victory of ma, mati, manus, says Mamata
There is need for taking greater initiatives: Biman Bose

KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance continued its successful electoral run in West Bengal, with the combine sweeping the polls to 16 civic bodies.

The elections, held on Sunday, were the first since the Lok Sabha elections in April-May, in which the alliance had won a majority of the seats from the State. The alliance bagged 13 of the 16 municipalities.

The results were announced on Wednesday.

The Left Front, still smarting from the reverses suffered in the national elections, won in three municipalities besides retaining the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad.

Significant

The Trinamool Congress that was in control of just one municipality while going into the elections, registered significant victories in both the Dum Dum and South Dum Dum civic bodies in the North 24 Parganas district that had been under the control of the Left Front, and in the Madhyamgram municipality.

The party also wrested control of the Uluberia municipality in Hooghly district, Asansol in Bardhman district, and the Sonarpur-Rajpur and Maheshtala civic bodies in South 24 Parganas district. It also won the newly created Dankuni municipality in Hooghly district.

The Congress retained the Sainthia, Kaliaganj and Islampur municipalities.

The Left Front took control of the Mal civic body from the Congress after 10 years, and won narrowly in the Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality in North 24 Parganas. It retained the Gangarampur civic body.

“Total victory”

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee described the results as “totally a victory of ma, mati, manus (mother, earth, and the people)” — a slogan adopted by her party in the Lok Sabha polls. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) “should learn a lesson” from the civic poll outcome, she said.

“They (the CPI[M]-led Left Front) have been in power for 32 years because of State-sponsored terrorism and rigging (elections)…People want them to go,” Ms. Banerjee said in New Delhi.

Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front Committee, said the outcome indicated that there had been little change in the voting pattern that was in evidence in the Lok Sabha polls.

Verdict accepted

Accepting the verdict of the people, he underlined the need for taking greater initiatives in connecting with the people.

The victory indicated that the people had once again reposed their faith in the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance, said Manas Bhunia, general secretary of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.

“Government must quit”

PTI reports:

State Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee said the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government “should quit accepting the people’s verdict.”

The Assembly elections in West Bengal are to be held in 2011.

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