Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) continued its poll juggernaut on Tuesday, sweeping the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election with a record number of seats.
The TMC won 134 of the 144 seats in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election, which was held on Sunday amid sporadic incidents of violence. About 63 per cent of polling was recorded.
BJP, which had led an aggressive campaign against the TMC, won three seats. The Left Front and Congress won two seats each while Independent candidates bagged three seats.
The TMC has received a massive vote share above 74 per cent. The CPM has garnered a vote share of 9.1 per cent while BJP has got 8 per cent of the votes.
The development comes seven months after its landslide win in the West Bengal assembly polls, where TMC won 213 of the 294 seats despite a strong challenge by the BJP.
In the last KMC election, held in 2015, TMC had won 113 seats - the highest margin then. BJP had won 7 seats and Congress and Left Front bagged 5 and 15 seats respectively. Three seats were won by the Independent candidates.
Heavyweight Candidates
Among the TMC heavyweights, Lok Sabha MP and five-time councillor Mala Roy retained her seat in ward number 88 for the sixth consecutive time. TMC MLA Debashis Kumar won in ward number 85. TMC MLA Atin Ghosh won in ward number 11 in north Kolkata. In ward number 118, TMC leader Tarak Singh was victorious for the third consecutive time.
The Congress' Santosh Pathak and Usman Ansari won ward numbers 45 and 137 respectively.
In ward no 22, BJP's sitting councillor and former deputy mayor of Kolkata Mina Devi Purohit won for the sixth consecutive time.
How Mamata Banerjee Reacted To The Results
Addressing the media, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee called it a victory of democracy, saying Kolkata would show the way to the people of the country.
"This is a victory of the people who have given their mandate in favour of development. This is a victory of development that Trinamool Congress has been continuously doing since its inception to power in 2011," IANS quoted Mamata Banerjee as saying.
"People have come out wholeheartedly to vote. This is a victory for democracy. This will help to keep a low profile and humbly work for the people of the city as well as of the state," the TMC supremo said.
Mamata called the victory an important development on national level because all the national parties like BJP, Congress and Left Front were defeated by the people's mandate.
"This victory will show the way in national politics in days to come. The beautification of Kolkata has been done. We stay on-ground and don't fly by night. We will now work for the urban and semi-urban areas also," she said.
Outgoing Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim lashed out at the BJP for demanding a repoll and said it should accept the mandate of the people.
"We also did opposition politics for 34 years but we never questioned the people. One should have the moral courage to accept the people's mandate. BJP is insulting the common people - the voters who went all the way from their houses to the polling stations to give their vote," Firhad Hakim told reporters.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said the people of Kolkata had once again proven that "politics of hate and violence have no place in Bengal".
What Did The Opposition Say
The BJP called the results a reflection of the reign of terror that the TMC had unleashed. "This result was expected because free and fair polls didn't take place in the absence of central forces," PTI quoted BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya as saying.
Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said in most of the wards, the "Left has emerged the main opposition".
(With inputs from agencies)