Mamata power soars high in civic polls
Trinamool Congress wins four of the seven municipalities
The West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress swept the civic body elections by winning four of the seven municipalities’ elections which were held last Sunday. The party also won the Mirik Municipality in the Darjeeling Hills where the Mamata Banerjee led party bagged total six out of nine seats. The other three seats were grabbed by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha.
Mamata Banerjee congratulated the people for supporting her party. "Special thanks to Mirik for reposing faith in us. We will work sincerely for you. After so many decades we begin a new era in the hills," she tweeted.
This is the first time in the last three decades, a political party of the plains won a civic body in the Darjeeling Hills. On the other hand the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, which has a strong base in the Darjeeling Hills, won only Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong municipalities. The Trinamool Congress candidates bagged one seat in Darjeeling, two seats in Kalimpong and three in Kurseong.
The ruling party also won the Raiganj, Domkal and Pujali municipalities by defeating the Congress-CPI(M) alliance. In Domkal in Mursidabad and Raijang in South Dinajpur districts which were strong belt of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress defeated the opposition candidates and won the civic bodies.
Before the next year’s pamchayat elections, this victory would definitely give impetus to the ruling party. The BJP, which has been working hard to make the state as one of their strong holds, have failed to yield any fruitful results. But the opposition parties do not want to give any credit to the Trinamool Congress for bagging the four civic bodies. They had said on the poll day that the ruling party supporters had made the election as a farce by capturing booths, looting electronic voting machines and intimidating voters.