The party won all the three municipal bodies that include Bidhannagar in <g data-gr-id="36">North</g> 24 Parganas district, Asansol in Burdwan district and Bally in Howrah district of the state.
Bidhannagar, considered to be among the high-profile civic bodies of the state, the ruling party bagged 37 of the 41 wards. Opposition CPI(M)’s mayoral candidate and former state finance minister Asim Dasgupta and <g data-gr-id="48">Ramala</g> Chakraborty, widow of former Left Front strongman Subhas Chakraborty, were among the heavyweights who lost the polls in Bidhannagar. Interestingly, the BJP failed to win a single seat here while the Left and the Congress just won two seats each.
In Asansol out of the 106 wards, TMC won 74 wards, Left 17, BJP eight, Congress four and Independents three. In Bally, the opposition was washed out with Trinamool winning all the 16 seats there. The victories probably ensure that the Trinamool Congress’ hold over the urban electorate continues unabated. The margin of the victories was an indication that the Opposition’s political space has shrunk to a great extent and the TMC’s supremacy was still unchallenged – four and half years after it had come to power in the 2011 Assembly polls.
The party polled 62 per cent of the votes in Bidhannagar, 46 per cent in Asansol and 75 per cent in Bally. In the final tally, the Trinamool Congress won 37 out of 41 wards in Bidhannagar, 74 out of 106 in Asansol and 16 out of 16 in Bally. This means a virtual rout for the Opposition CPI(M) and BJP.
The Trinamool Congress bosses dubbed this victory as that of development vis-a-vis disruptive politics.
The polls to newly-formed Asansol and Bidhannagar municipal corporations in the state was pitched as a key test of popularity for the political parties ahead of next year’s state Assembly elections.
Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick refuted allegations that outsiders had been used by TMC to win the polls.
“This is a blatant lie. We have won the polls by the blessings of the masses. It was opposition Congress and CPI(M) which had used outsiders to create violence during the polls.”
The polls were held amidst allegations of rigging and other anomalies by the Opposition parties that finally led to senior IAS officer Alapan Bandopadhyay taking charge as the interim State Election Commissioner.