TMC likely to pitch women & young nominees for KMC & Howrah civic polls

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress is likely to project women and young workers as candidates in the forthcoming civic elections in Kolkata and Howrah. The election will be held on December 19.

The list of candidates for both the civic bodies is expected to be announced next week. Final selection of the candidates is on. It was learnt from reliable sources that more thrust was being given on selecting women and young candidates. It was learnt that all the existing councilors — now ward coordinators — would not get tickets. Nominations would be made strictly on performance basis, sources added. The idle ward coordinators would be dropped and replaced with new faces, sources claimed.

The election in KMC was supposed to be held in 2020 but had to be postponed due to the Covid situation. Elections will be held in 144 wards in Kolkata and 50 wards in Howrah. Trinamool Congress has won in all 11 Assembly seats in Kolkata, including Kolkata Port, Ballygunge, Rashbehari, Bhowanipore, Chowringhee, Entally, Manicktala, Beliaghata, Shyampukur, Kashipur-Belgachia and Jorasanko. The organisation of Trinamool Congress has been strengthened in Kolkata.

The party had won the civic elections in Kolkata in 2000 under the mayorship of Subrata Mukherjee. Subsequently, TMC had won the civic poll in 2010 and 2015 and Sovan Chatterjee and later Firhad Hakim became the Mayor. In the present board, Atin Ghosh, member board of administrators, is the senior-most member. He became a councilor in 1985 when the Member, Mayor-in-Council system was first introduced following the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act (1980).