It was a resounding victory as predicted.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has won 114 of the 144 seats in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election. The Left Front got 15 seats, BJP 7, Congress 5 and Others 3.
These results have not surprised the TMC.
When a student has worked sincerely through the year, he knows the results. Our party has worked under the able leadership of our leader. Our faith in work, people and democracy have made this victory possible. This is the will of the people.
— Dinesh Trivedi, Vice-President, Trinamool Congress
He dismissed allegations of rigging as the Opposition’s inability to accept defeat.
Polls Rigged?
Bureaucrats in the state, however, maintain that there is a certain degree of rigging in the panchayat and municipal elections. They say that local elections are easy to manipulate as they are under the control of the state government.
There are no outside observers and no Central forces unlike the parliamentary and assembly elections which are held under the aegis of the Government of India, they argue.
Noises made by the State Election Commission are seen as mere lip service. A cynical political observer says, “This is like a fixed match. If the state election commissioner had genuine grievances, what prevented him from declaring the election process null and void?”
The state’s ruling party maintains that repolling had been ordered in 36 booths due to ‘technical glitches’.
However, its critics hold that it is unfortunate that repolling had been ordered in those areas where the TMC asked for it.
Violent Civic Polls
These elections saw more violence than previous civic polls in West Bengal. There were over 400 cases of violence reported during the KMC polls and another 100 cases during the panchayat elections. There were also reports of large-scale intimidation, while allegedly the state administration chose to be a passive bystander.
The TMC did not want to just win. It wanted to win with a big margin. This is a semi-final. The message had to go out loud and clear before the finals in May 2016.
— Senior government official
It was to the TMC’s advantage that West Bengal lacks a credible Opposition. It has to be noted that the BJP did not see any national leader assisting its campaign in Bengal.
Lack of a Credible Opposition
With the elevation of Sitaram Yechury to the post of General Secretary of the CPI-M there was a belief that the party would fare better this time.
Yechury understands the politics of Bengal and has the ability to revive the sagging morale of the party. But as these results show, the CPI-M needs to get its act together before it can think of regaining ground in the state.
In the Lok Sabha elections last year, the BJP got 17% of the votes in the panchayat areas and 23% in Kolkata. This jump in their vote share was credited to the Modi wave.
But this time the BJP seemed to have missed the point. They were critical of the ruling party in the state but had no ‘service’ agenda in place. They were therefore not seen as a viable alternative in these civic polls.
While the BJP and the Left Front, who are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, have coincidentally called a Bengal bandh on April 30 to protest against alleged electoral malpractices, the TMC rejoices and prepares for the summer of 2016.
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