The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Polls, slated to be held on 19 December, are important for a several reasons. The primary reason is that the polls were supposed to be held in April-May 2020 but were postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The KMC elections have historically functioned very differently from the Assembly elections. There is always a close competition between parties.
As of now, the KMC was being run by a state-appointed 14-member board of administrators, with outgoing mayor Firhad Hakim at its helm.
This year’s election will see the Trinamool Congress which has been ruling the KMC since 2010, contest all 144 wards, while the Bharatiya Janata Party will contest 142, Congress 123, Communist Party of India (Marxist) 96, Communist Party of India 14, Forward Bloc 11 and NCP 1.
Including 387 independent candidates, a total of 950 candidates will be fighting it out in their respective wards to earn a spot in the KMC. This number, however, is less than the previous two times, which saw over 1000 candidates. Political experts opine that this is due to most politicians being absorbed into parties, thereby reducing the number of independent candidates in these elections.
TMC’s ‘Kar Har Maidan Fateh’
The Trinamool Congress will be looking to continue its winning streak. And if opinion polls are any in, then a clean sweep is destined for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. This will make the TMC, practically unopposed in both the West Bengal Assembly and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
According to ABP’s C-Voter's final survey before the polls, TMC is set to win 130 out of 144 wards, with the BJP a distant second with just 13 seats and the LF with just one seat. Congress and independents are predicted to get none.
In terms of vote share TMC is predicted to get 52 percent , while the BJP 24 percent, Left 9 percent, Congress 3 percent and independents 12 percent.
Political experts believe that given the poor campaigning by the BJP for this polls, there is a better chance of the Left Front taking away a chunk of vote share from the saffron party.
The BJP has been dealing with a series of desertions to the Trinamool, since the Assembly elections. The turmoil and instances of post-poll violence against party workers left BJP cadre demotivated and this has affected their poll campaign.
For the Left, they have had a significant presence on the ground especially during the second wave and have been very active in their door-to-door campaigns. However, political experts opine that this hasn't translated into votes as yet.
While the BJP will try to make some inroads in the KMC, and pick up the pieces from the Assembly election, the LF and Congress will be hoping to make a mark, given their performance in the previous polls. It is a literal fight for organisational existence for the LF and Congress, who seem to have ceded most of their strongholds to their adversaries.
However, the BJP stands may have to compete with the Left in the Opposition space in a few places.
Women, Grassroots Leaders, Family and Red Volunteers
There is a high ratio of women candidates in the fray from all the parties this election, even beyond the seats that are reserved for women. The candidate lists also feature men and women from all walks of life ranging from doctors (Debojyoti Mazumder, BJP) to filmmakers (Monalisa Banerjee, TMC).
The CPI-M has nominated its ‘battle-hardened’ Red Volunteers in a number of places. The Red Volunteers are said to have been active during the second wave of the pandemic, helping arrange hospital beds, oxygen supply and other essentials. By the end of the wave, many of these volunteers became popular faces in their ‘para’ or locality.
Tanushree Mandal who is contesting from ward 110, is one of the 38 Red Volunteers nominated by the CPI-M, will be one to watch out for. However, it's not all fresh young faces as there are some veterans in the fray, including Karuna Sengupta from ward 10 and Ratna Ray Mazumder from ward 128.
The BJP has opted for more grassroots and booth-level workers instead of star-studded celebrities for the KMC polls, unlike their Assembly elections strategy. Prominent names include five-time councillor Meenadevi Purohit from ward 22, who was also the first woman deputy mayor of Kolkata in 2000.
Significantly BJP has fielded nine Muslim candidates which include five women.
The BJP, however, couldn’t nominate candidates to all 144 wards after two of its candidates withdrew their nominations.
The TMC on the other hand has given tickets to the kin of several party leaders for the upcoming polls, which include West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s sister-in-law Kajari Banerjee, Puja Panja, the daughter of minister Shashi Panja, Kakoli Sen, the wife of Shantanu Sen, and Sourav Basu, the son of minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
The list also includes the names of six MLAs, and one sitting MP, including the outgoing mayor Firhad Hakim. This is a deviation from the “One Person, One Post” principle which has been recently adopted by the party. Besides them, there are several other big names in the likes of seven-time councillor and six-time MLA Ram Pyare Ram from Khidderpore and five-time councillor Mala Roy from Kalighat-Chetla area.
Prominent figures from the CPI include three-time councillor from Dhakuria (ward 92), Madhuchhanda Deb and the Congress' list includes three-time councillor Prakash Upadhyay from Narkeldanga who has been working with slum-dwellers in the area and enjoys a loyal support from them.
Hot Seats
Ward 39, near College Street, will be the most contested ward this time around with a total of 16 candidates going to the ballot. The ward also includes big names like Muhammad Jasimuddin from the TMC and Muhammad Jahangir from the BJP. Other hot seats include ward 23 (Posta) and 43 (Burrabazar) with 12 candidates each.
Ward 142 near Joka has the least number of candidates, with only three in the fray. Prominent areas to watch out for include Kolkata Port, Khidderpore, Kalighat (Mamata Banerjee's constituency) and Behala.
Key Issues: Hygiene, Clean Drinking Water and Provisions for Electric Vehicles
According to the ABP C-Voter survey, key election issues include how the pandemic was handled, corruption, waterlogging in the city and hygiene.
Parties going to polls have focused on these factors in the manifestoes as well. Some of the issues featuring prominently include addressing frequent and prolonged waterlogging in the city, proper disposal of waste, better hygiene especially for women by constructing public washrooms in every ward. Another major issue that parties are focusing on is the access to clean drinking water in Kolkata.
A few parties have also laid emphasis on eco-friendly measures and sustainability projects.
Some promises stand out. The BJP has promised to provide a unified transport card 'Amar Kolkata', that can be used to avail all modes of transport in the city. On the other hand, the TMC has promised to build infrastructure which would aid in the usage and availability of more electric vehicles on the streets. They have also taken to the artsy side of things as they have promised to take up projects like painting wall-art in several neighbourhoods.
The Left, meanwhile, has promised to build more hospitals and ensure better access to them keeping in hindsight the devastating COVID-19 second wave in Bengal, especially in Kolkata.
Infighting Knows No End
The BJP is not off to a great start in the elections. Their campaigns haven’t had enough attendance from the cadre, and the rallies are falling short in comparison to the TMC, Left and Congress.
There have been instances of infighting among party cadres. BJP candidates from wards 133 and 134 (Kolkata port area) withdrew their nomination on the day of scrutiny. Mumtaz Ali withdrew her nomination because she had no support from the cadre and alleges that the party did not listen to her demands. Sadananda Prasad withdrew his nomination for personal reasons.
BJP MP Roopa Ganguly left a virtual meeting with state BJP leaders midway, and later took to social media to slam the party over their choice of candidate. She expressed her displeasure over the party not nominating Gaurav Biswas from ward 86, the husband of late BJP councillor Teesta Biswas. She even went on to cry foul over the death of the late councillor, who was killed in a car accident on October 27.
But it isn’t just the BJP. TMC too is facing similar problems.
Initially TMC nominees, Sachidananda Banerjee and Tanima Chatterjee (sister of late Subrata Chatterjee) are now contesting as independent candidates. Banerjee, an ex-chairman of the KMC quit because he was denied a ticket while Chatterjee was chosen as a candidate from ward 68, only to be replaced a day later by councillor Sudarshana Mukherjee. The party expelled her after she didn’t withdraw her nomination. Prominent TMC leader Ratan Malakar too decided to fight as an independent candidate after being denied a ticket.
Experts predict that TMC may lose up to 20 wards because of infighting within the party ranks. Some cadres are angry because the party is deviating from the ‘One person, one post’ promise.
The results of the KMC polls will be declared on 21 December 2021.
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