Reaffirming its dominance in the state, ruling Trinamul Congress today won a landslide victory in all the four municipal corporations ~ Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Asansol and Chandernagore ~ with a remarkable margin. Dedicating her party’s thumping win to the people of the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee called it a victory of the masses.
“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 in All India Trinamool Congress candidates in the Municipal Corporation elections,” she tweeted.
Miss Banerjee later said: “The election was held peacefully. The State Election Commission and administration played important roles to ensure people cast their votes. There was no trouble anywhere during polling.”
Criticising the BJP, Left and Congress, Miss Banerjee said: “BJP got votes in North Bengal including Siliguri, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Alipurduar and North and South Dinajpur but they have done nothing for the people. We will work for the people and give them all sorts of civic facilities.”
“We are committed to carry forward our development work further with greater zeal and enthusiasm. The more we win the more we have to be humble,” she added. The Trinamul Congress snatched Siliguri from the Left Front by winning 37 out of 47 seats and bagging 47.24 per cent of the total votes. BJP emerged as the main Opposition by bagging five seats while Left Front was relegated to the third position by winning four seats and Congress won one seat.
Miss Banerjee was quick to announce that Gautam Deb will be the new mayor of Siliguri. Mr Deb has won by a margin of 3,000 votes. Former mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Ashoke Bhattacharya lost to the Trinamul Congress candidate by a margin of over 300 votes.
“The votes that went to BJP have now gone to Trinamul Congress instead of coming back to us. It is a total catastrophe. This is political rejection by the people, but we are communists and we cannot sit back at home in despair. We will have to reach out to the people and make them realise the situation”, Mr Bhattacharya told the media. The Trinamul retained Bidhannagar by securing 74.10 per cent votes and bagged 39 of the 41 seats.