BJP's vote share in KMC area dips by 23% since 2021 Assembly elections
As many as 116 BJP candidates lost their deposit
KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election results revealed massive erosion in BJP's vote share, making the party stands at a position it was holding 10 years back. The saffron party managed to win only three out of 144 seats in the civic body.
The saffron camp's poll percentage in the KMC area witnessed a sharp decline of around 23 per cent compared to that of 2021 Assembly elections. BJP's poll percentage in Kolkata in the last Assembly election was around 33 per cent and in the civic poll it has dropped to 9.21 per cent. Its vote bank has also eroded compared to that of 2015 KMC election, when it had bagged around 15.42 per cent votes. As many as 116 BJP candidates lost their deposit.
This comes when the poll percentage of Trinamool Congress has witnessed an unprecedented rise of around 13 per cent in KMC area compared to that of 2021 Assembly polls. The state's ruling party got 72.13 per cent votes, which was around 59.03 per cent in the Assembly polls and 50.6 per cent in 2015 KMC elections. Interestingly, the vote percentage of the Left Front has also gone up to around 11.7 per cent. The Left has also secured distant second position in 65 wards, leaving BJP behind. BJP has come up in the second position in 54 wards. In 2015 KMC elections, Trinamool Congress bagged 114 seats. The same went up to 134 in 2021. The BJP, Left Front and Congress had won in seven, 15, five and three wards respectively in 2015. While BJP won three seats, Congress and Left Front won two each in the recently-concluded KMC polls.
BJP had won three wards in 2010 KMC polls. In 2015 civic polls, it went up to seven wards.
In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had a lead in 22 wards in the KMC area. But, it had dropped to 12 in the 2021 Assembly elections.
The 12 wards, in which BJP had taken a lead in the Assembly polls, include 2 wards in the Bhowanipore Assembly constituency. In the bypolls in September, BJP had failed to retain its lead in two wards in Bhowanipore Assembly segment.
As a result, BJP's lead in KMC area was finally in 10 wards as per the last Assembly polls. With the announcement of the KMC election results, the wards under BJP's control came down to three. It has managed to retain ward number 22 and 23 from where Mina Devi Purohit and Vijay Ojha respectively won. It had lost in ward number 42 but its nominee Sajal Ghosh secured a win from ward number 50.
