Mamata sweeps four Bengal civic polls, breaches Siliguri hurdle

As the results were declared on Monday, the TMC won 91 of 106 seats in the civic polls held in Asansol, an industrial belt in West Bengal.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had earlier produced MP Babul Supriyo twice before he switched camps, was nowhere close to its expectations getting only seven seats while the Left and Congress got two each.

In Bidhannagar, a cosmopolitan area surrounding Kolkata, the TMC maintained its total dominance winning 39 of 41 seats leaving one each for the Congress and Others.

In Chandannagar, the ruling party has won 31 of 32 seats leaving one for the Left, which is showing a poor hope for its revival in the state they ruled for 34 years despite improvement in recent performances.

The surprise for the TMC came from north Bengal as Siliguri, which leads to the hill station Darjeeling, favoured Banerjee's party in the elections, which were claimed to be largely peaceful by the city's former Mayor and Left leader, Ashok Bhattacharya, himself.

Out of 47 seats, the TMC, which has always faltered in Siliguri, won 37 seats surpassing the BJP (four seats), which had swept the 2021 assembly elections in the city despite Banerjee's sweeping victory.

The Left, which had governed the municipal corporation in Siliguri since 2015, managed to get only four seats leaving one for the Congress.

Gautam Deb, a former minister in Banerjee's cabinet, will become the new Siliguri Mayor, the TMC chief told the media shortly after the results became clearer.

Elated at the victory, Banerjee tweeted, "It is once again an overwhelming victory of Ma, Mati, Manush. My heartiest congratulations to the people of Asansol, Bidhannagar, Siliguri & Chandanagore for having put their faith and confidence on All India Trinamool Congress candidates in the Municipal Corporation elections."

"We are committed to carry forward our development work further with greater zeal and enthusiasm. My sincerest gratitude to Ma Mati Manush."

However, the Mayors or Chairmans of the Corporations in the rest of the civic bodies will be decided later after meeting the elected representatives of the TMC, Banerjee said.

Reacting to the poll results, West Bengal Leader of Opposition (LoP) and BJP MLA, Suvendu Adhikari, called the elections "farce" citing alleged rigging and chaos on the polling day.

"Mockery of Democracy in West Bengal !!! Results prove that Election process for 4 Municipal Corporations was a farce," he tweeted.