Candidates campaign in full throttle on last Sunday ahead of civic elections on Dec 19

KOLKATA: The candidates for the forthcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections across party lines used the last Sunday before the polls to reach out to as many people as possible.

The KMC polls is scheduled to be held on December 19. In the outgoing civic board, out of 144 ward coordinators, TMC had 126 of them. Due to the organisational strength, Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates were far ahead of their rivals, namely the BJP, Left Front and Congress in the campaign. As per political analysts, if campaign is a factor to predict the election results, then it is certain that TMC will set up the civic board with a thumping majority.

In South Kolkata, Firhad Hakim and Debashis Kumar carried out door-to-door campaigns to reach the people. Trinamool Congress (TMC) published the election manifesto and pledged to take up a 10 point development programme at a function on Saturday. The manifesto was distributed among the people to make them aware of the steps, which the new civic board would take if voted to power. Both Hakim and Kumar, nurture their wards throughout the year, and have taken the civic election seriously.

In ward 72, where a tough fight is expected between the sitting ward coordinator Sandip Bakshi and independent candidate Satchidananda Banerjee, former chairman of TMC, the ruling party held a meeting at Sarat Bose Road market to reach more people. The party leaders urged people to vote for TMC to carry on with the development.

In Behala, Ratna Chatterjee conducted a door-to-door programme in ward 131. She is the sitting MLA and in absence of Sovan Chatterjee, she used to look after the ward.

In North Kolkata, sitting ward coordinator Atin Ghosh and Mohan Gupta carried out the campaign in full throttle. Ghosh has been a ward coordinator since 1985. Both Ghosh and Gupta are known for their sincerity and efficiency.

Puja Panja—who is contesting the election for the first time—went to people urging them to vote for TMC. The BJP, Left Front and Congress candidates could not hide their organisational weaknesses as they failed miserably to bring party workers on the street to campaign for their nominees. Prakash Upadhaya and Santosh Pathak, both veteran Congress leaders, carried out door-to-door campaigns in their wards in central Kolkata.

As the Left parties do not have enough supporters, they held street corner meetings and urged people to vote for them to get better civic amenities.