Trinamool Congress on Tuesday returned to control the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) clinching 114 of the 144 wards and also winning 69 of the 91 municipal bodies in districts across the state proving that the ongoing investigations into the Saradha chit fund scam, an otherwise embarrassment for the party, had little effect on the civic polls.
Trinamool's tally at the KMC polls was the best any party would manage before.
The Left could not cross 100 wards even during its heydays, handicapped by pockets of Hindi-speaking communities of Kolkata most of whom traditionally voted for the Congress.
The results also exposed the poor state of affairs of the local wing of BJP, miserably failing to cash in on the party's overwhelming victory in the Lok Sabha polls partly due to a weak leadership at the state level which failed to attract enough credible candidates.
The Left Front on the contrary could not even master the money to launch any effective campaign not to mention any strategy to highlight failings of the Trinamool-led state government.
CPI(M)- led Left Front's tally in the KMC got reduced to just 15 wards from 33 while elsewhere it got control of six boards.
Congress managed five, BJP got none even as 12 boards couldn't throw up any single majority party.
A major win for the Left was Siliguri Municipal Corporation where CPIM managed to capture 23 of the 47 seats where TMC bagged 17 seats in what was widely seen as a prestige fight for state minister Gautam Deb and CPI(M) leader and former minister Ashok Bhattacharya.
The outcome also showed how allegations of wide-spread booth capturing and other malpractices against the Trinamool could turn self-defeating.
"There were allegations that we had brought in goons from outside to rig the elections. If we rigged the polls or resorted to malpractices, how come the opposition won so many seats?" asked chief minister Mamata Banerjee after the results were announced.
TMC heavyweights like chairman of the outgoing KMC board Sachidananda Banerjee, deputy mayor Farzana Alam and also prominent party councillor Paresh Pal were defeated.
In KMC BJP could manage to improve its ward count from three to just seven, with most of the votes coming from its traditional vote bank of non-Bengalies.
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