Kolkata: Going by the popular expectations, Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, on Wednesday managed a landslide victory in the West Bengal municipality polls by gaining victory in 102 out of 108 municipalities in the state. While TMC bagged 102 seats, one seat was bagged by Left front in Nodia, one seat was secured by the Hamro Party in Darjeeling and the remaining four seats from Jhalda, Beldanga, Egra, Chapdani are in a no decisive verdict phase as none of the parties has won in majority to conduct the proceedings. The polls for the formation of the new boards for these 108 municipalities were conducted on February 27.
As per the records of the State Election Commission, West Bengal, of the 102 municipalities that went to the kitty of Trinamool Congress, the opposition parties could not win a single ward in 31 municipalities. The Left Front managed to retain control in just the minority-dominated Taherpur municipality in Nadia district. BJP, the principal opposition party in West Bengal, failed to bag victory in a single municipality. So was the case for Congress whose score was also nil.
The surprise came in the hill municipality of Darjeeling in north Bengal where the newly formed Hamro Party managed to form the board by winning 18 out of 32 wards. While it was hung in four municipalities. What came as a surprise in the results in the latest municipal polls was the emergence of the Left Front in the second position leaving BJP in the third position in terms of vote share. Even in those pockets in north Bengal and south Bengal, where BJP was strong in the 2021 Assembly elections, Left Front this time emerged as the main opposition force.
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The Trinamool Congress leadership has described this victory as the overwhelming and spirited support of the people for Trinamool Congress. The opposition parties, however, termed this landslide victory for Trinamool Congress as the result of massive election malpractices and violence on the polling days. The Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, herself rubbished the allegations. According to her, the complaints about election malpractices were the results of false propaganda by a section of the media.
