I/.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-live-kmc-election-results-2081338
West Bengal municipal elections : TMC wins big, opposition cries foul
Tuesday, 28 April 2015 - 11:59pm IST | Place: Kolkata | Agency: dna webdesk
Pooja Mehta
It was evident that the Trinamool Congress would retain number one
spot in the polls, the bigger battle was to grab the second spot. The
Left Front managed to reach the second spot by winning in 15 wards of
the total 144 wards of KMC
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee flashes
victory sign after her party win in Kolkata Municipal Corporation
election, in Kolkata PTI
In a major boost to the party ahead of next year's Assembly polls,
the Trinamool Congress today scored a landslide victory in the Kolkata
Municipal Corporation bagging 114 of the 144 wards, and also won 69 of
the 91 civic bodies in districts across West Bengal.
The victory in the municipal polls, which was billed as the semifinal
before the Assembly polls, will act as a shot in the arm for the TMC,
which recently faced serious allegations of corruption, including
alleged involvement of some of its leaders in the Saradha Chit Fund
scam.
Also read: Decoding Trinamool Congress' sweep in the West Bengal Civic Polls
Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee termed the victory as
"a befitting reply to the slanderous campaign carried out by the
Opposition and a section of the media." The TMC, which in the last KMC
polls had won 95 seats, increased its tally to 114 while the main
opposition CPI(M)- led Left Front was reduced to just 15 from 33.
The BJP, which was hoping to replace the Left as the main opposition
in the KMC, miserably failed, managing to increase its tally from
three to just seven seats. Independents bagged three seats in the KMC.
Congress, which was fast becoming insignificant in state politics,
managed to win five seats, down from eight in 2010.
Contrary to KMC, the results in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation
showed the CPI(M)-led Left Front has managed to regain some of its
lost ground capturing 23 of the 47 seats.
TMC bagged 17 seats in Siliguri Municipal Corporation, which was
regarded as a prestige fight for TMC leader and state minister Gautam
Deb and CPI(M) leader and former minister Ashok Bhattacharya.
Apart from its big victory in the KMC, TMC showed impressive results
in municipalities across the state.
The party snatched Sonamukhi in Bankura, Baduria, North Dum Dum in
North 24-Parganas, Mathabhanga and Tufanganj in Coochbehar, Gayeshpur
municipalities in Nadia from the Left and the Congress.
The Left Front won just five municipal bodies-- Jangipur, Dinhata,
Daihat, Siliguri and Taherpur-- whereas the Congress won five
municipalities - Murshidabad, Kandi, Jhalda, Kaliagunj and Islampur.
The BJP failed to win even a single civic body.
The fate of 12 municipalities is undecided as none of the political
parties managed to get a majority.
Dedicating the victory to the people of the state, Banerjee said the
results proved that the Opposition's allegations of rigging and
violence by TMC cadres were "wrong".
"This victory is an answer to all the slander and canard that was
spread against us. Even with so many TV channels you could not do
anything. The polls were completely free and peaceful. Had there been
rigging, we would not have lost the few seats," she said.
The CPI(M), on the other hand, claimed that the victory of TMC did not
"reflect public opinion".
"The results do not reflect public opinion but are a reflection of
muscle and money power. Wherever the Left has put up a resistance to
the violence the people have blessed us. The results have also shown
it's not the BJP, but the Left which still enjoys mass support and can
fight for democratic rights," CPI(M) politburo member Mohammed Salim
said.
State Congress President Adhir Chowdhury said that the notion created
in the media that Congress had become irrelevant was proved wrong.
The KMC results have shown that only two parties have grown in terms
of numbers. One is the TMC which has used muscle and money power to
increase its votes and another is BJP which has increased its tally,"
state BJP president Rahul Sinha said.
Live Blog -
Mamata Banerjee has announced that party workers will not do
any victory celebration in the wake of massive destruction in both
India and Nepal due to earthquake. It will be celebrated on 9th May,
which is the birth anniversary of Rabindra Nath Tagore.
TMC supporters celebrating (PTI)
Senior CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty has branded the election as
complete 'loot' by TMC. He said the party wanted to make Bengal
completely free of opposition but failed to do so. He alleged that TMC
has 'looted' at least 15% of the votes polled.
BJP state President Rahul Sinha has dubbed the election as
farce, saying TMC used to strong arm tactics and state machinery to
get the result on their favour. Still Rahul hailed the performance of
his party in Kolkata,
where the party has won 7 seats and finished in second place in
more than 50 seats.
Outgoing mayor of Kolkata, Sovan Chatterjee was declared a winner from
ward number 131 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in the first hour of
vote counting on Tuesday. However, the outgoing mayor Farzana Alam is
trailing in ward 63 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Out of the total 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation,
Trinamool Congress is leading in 70 wards, CPM is leading in 12 wards,
BJP is leading 12 wards and Congress is leading 8 wards after two
rounds of counting.
In ward number 6 of Kachrapara Municipality, former Trinamool Congress
general secretary Mukul Roy's son Subhrangshu Roy was declared a
winner. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress has won the civic polls in
Kanthi, Tamluk, Baruipur, Malbazar Municipalities.
In Katwa, out of total 20 wards, Trinamool Congress won in 10 wards
while CPM won in 10 wards. Murshidabad and Kaliaganj Municipality has
been won by Congress. Tahirpur and Jangipur Municipality has been won
by CPM.
The third round of counting is going on across the state.
In a major breakthrough for the BJP, the candidate for ward 70, Ashim
Bose defeated Trinamool Congress candidate Satchidananda Banerjee, who
is also the present Kolkata Municipal Corporation chairperson. The
entire ward 70 comprises the Bhawanipur area and is a stretch
dominated by Hindi-speaking communities - especially the Gujaratis.
With most of them supporting the BJP, this win gives them a lead in
the KMC where they had been trailing. Banerjee lost to Bose with 1990
votes.
After the third round of counting, TMC declared winner in as many as
30 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Left Front declared winner
in 10 wards, Congress in two wards and BJP in three wards.
In Siliguri Municipality, Left Front has won 17 wards and Trinamool
Congress has 13 wards. Left's mayoral candidate Ashok Bhattacharya has
won in ward number 6 of Siliguri Municipality. Bhattacharya was the
minister for Municipal Affairs and Urban Development and Town Planning
during the Left Front rule in West Bengal. He was chairman of Siliguri
municipality from 1987 to 1991. He faced his biggest defeat in the
2011 assembly election when he lost to Rudranath Bhattacharya of
Trinamool Congress.
Leader of Opposition in Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Left Front
candidate Rupa Bagchi lost to Trinamool Congress candidate Shanti
Ranjan Kundu in ward 32 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
While the election result counting has entered its fourth round,
counting at booth number 54 of Rishra has yet not begun. Officers on
poll duty, cannot find one EVM, as a result of which, the counting is
yet to begin.
Deputy Mayor of Kolkata - Farzana Alam lost to a RSP candidate in ward
65 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
While the BJP has won as many as four wards in Kolkata Municipal
Corporation, the party is yet to open its account in any of the civic
boards of West Bengal. Out of the 91 municipal boards, 84 results have
been declared. Of them, Trinamool Congress has registered a thumping
victory by winning in 64 civic boards. Left Front and Congress has won
in five civic boards of the state.
II/III.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150429/jsp/bengal/story_17264.jsp
How the 92 voted
[Detailed party positions municipality wise]
III.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150429/jsp/bengal/story_17218.jsp
2014 bang turns to whimper
Radhika Ramaseshan, Arnab Ganguly and Amit Ukil
Rahul Sinha at a news conference after the civic results were
announced. Picture by Anup Bhattacharya
Calcutta, April 28: The bang of 2014 ended in a whimper for the BJP in
2015 as the party failed to win any of the boards in the 92 civic
bodies across the state, including the Calcutta Municipal Corporation
(CMC).
Although Bengal unit president Rahul Sinha put up a brave face after
the election results were declared, many leaders did not share his
enthusiasm.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had leads in 26 wards of the CMC
but in the April 18 elections, the party managed only seven. The
consolation for the party was that it managed to go beyond the trading
hub of Burrabazar, where it had three councillors in the 2010 polls.
"We have performed the best among the Opposition parties. In the CMC,
we have won seven wards while in the rest of the state, we have got 82
in 36 municipalities, which is a major jump compared to the 16 we
had," Sinha said after the election results were declared.
"We have come second in about 50 wards in the CMC area. Clearly, we
are ahead of the other Opposition parties," he added.
But it emerged later that the BJP was in the Number Two position in 38
wards as against 65 of the Left. Some BJP leaders said in private that
the attempt to highlight the second position was an admission that the
party had fared badly.
Even as Sinha tried to blame alleged electoral malpractices for the
poor show, Mamata Banerjee could not resist taking a dig at the BJP's
performance in the civic polls in her backyard, Bhowanipore.
"So much was being said about the BJP in Bhowanipore. What happened?
Only one ward went to them," said Mamata, addressing a news conference
this afternoon at her Kalighat residence.
In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had led in three of the seven wards in
the Bhowanipore Assembly segment - represented by Mamata.
The Bengal BJP was on a high following the surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha
polls, where it had seemed to have made an impact among urban voters,
edging past Trinamul in municipalities as varied as Bidhannagar and
Islampur in north Bengal.
The BJP's "successes", heightened by the time and energy party
president Amit Shah, aided by national secretary and Bengal minder
Sidharth Nath Singh, invested in Bengal, had created the impression
that sooner than later, the BJP would emerge as the state's second
party and Mamata's principal adversary.
Shah, who had set his eyes on Bengal, had promised to meet Bengal
party workers every month. His last visit was in January and he did
not come to campaign for the civic polls.
In the run-up to the civic elections, the Bengal unit of the BJP was
hit by internal squabbles over nominations, delay in releasing the
manifesto and lack of leadership when party workers came under attack
from Trinamul.
The only BJP leader who emerged to take on Trinamul's muscle-flexing
ways was Roopa Ganguly. What would worry the BJP leadership is that
the party failed to win the two municipalities from where Basirhat
South MLA Samik Bhattacharya had got a decisive lead in the September
2014 by-election.
In the bypoll, the BJP had led in 19 of the 22 wards of the Basirhat
municipality and 13 of the 16 in neighbouring Taki. This time, the
party managed to win three wards each in the two municipalities.
The performance in minority-dominated Birbhum, where the party made
significant inroads after the Lok Sabha polls, was a pointer to the
BJP's poor show. The party squandered away the chance to win the civic
boards in Rampurhat, Suri and Sainthia, where it had got leads in
2014.
In the four municipalities that went to polls, including Bolpur, on
April 25, the BJP managed to get only nine seats.
According to BJP sources, the decision to remove Birbhum unit
president Doodh Kumar Mondal ahead of the civic polls cost the party
dear.
Singh claimed his party would have fared better had the polls been
conducted in a "free and fair" manner.
"We performed well in the by-elections as these were held in the
presence of central forces. The civic polls were rigged," Singh said.
--
Peace Is Doable
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