With the results of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) poll announced, Left Front has emerged as the main opposition by finishing second in 65 wards out of 144 and pushing BJP to the third. The CPIM, however, has lost more seats with some of its veteran councillors losing to the TMC candidates.

The Left Front though has been able to retain the second position it took an apparent hit as its victory is now limited to two seats from what was earlier 15 in the 2015 KMC polls. The room for Left councillors in the SN Banerjee road headquarters is likely to remain half empty as the representation of the CPIM in the civic body, drastically reduced.

Advertisement

A Left Front leader said the Left though believes that its ability to hold on to the second position in 65 wards out of 144, is in itself a sign that people of Kolkata retains their faith in the party but lamented that it could have bagged more seats had the “TMC not looted votes and unleashed violence to wreck the election.”

The two seats retained by the Left Front is ward 92 and 103. In 92, Madhu Chanda Deb, a veteran CPIM councillor who has been winning the seat since 2005, was able to tide over all odds and secure her seat even this time too. However, she didn’t indulge in victory celebrations right away but instead lashed out saying the Left would have won more seats had TMC not unleashed its goons to spread fear and intimidation among voters.

“We have all seen how the vote was conducted and the role played by the police. I am thankful to the people of my ward that they chose to repose their faith in me once again. Will work towards the development of my ward” she  said. Ward 103 was won by CPIM candidate Nandita Roy who was the former councillor of the ward.

However, despite finishing second to TMC and surfacing as the prime opposition, the CPIM regretted that its representation in the KMC is now reduced to a minimum. The wards which were with the Left but are now lost, are- 21, 41, 65, 75,91,98,99, 102, 111, 127 and 128. CPIM’s long-time councillors such as Chayan Bhattacharya and Ratna Roy Majumdar stand defeated in this poll. While Bhattacharya has been winning ward 111 since 2010, and then in 2015, Ratna Roy Majumdar, former councillor of ward 128 in Behala had won in 2005 and then in 2015. She served as the Leader of the Left Front in the KMC.

But no sooner than the poll results were out, the Left alleged the TMC has started ransacking their offices and forcefully taking them over. “The DYFI party office in Netaji Nagar has been captured by the TMC after its candidate won the polls from the ward. They have ransacked our office and installed TMC flags” said a CPIM worker. The TMC MLA, Arup Biswas, however, refuted the charge and said “unlike the CPIM, TMC doesn’t resort to such tactics. It is a colony office but was being used by the CPIM for their party work. Now it will again be used for the purposes it was meant to be used for.”