Civic election results: CPM trumps TMC in Siliguri, but Mamata Banerjee retains supremacy

KOLKATA: Wednesday's results of panchayat by-elections in Bengal clearly indicates Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress maintains supremacy over its rival CPM and BJP except in Siliguri where the ruling party has to accept defeat in the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad (SMP) polls to the Marxists. Performance of the ruling party in Siliguri panchayat polls is also not up to the mark and it can be said that Trinamool Congress will have to face a very stiff opposition in Siliguri and its adjoining areas during 2016 Assembly elections in case there is no poll alliance with the Congress. Of the total 9 seats in the SMP, CPM has won six and Trinamool Congress three.This was Trinamool's second defeat to the CPM in Siliguri after April's civic polls in Bengal.

In Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) polls held in April this year, the CPM and its allies had captured 23 of the total 47 seats while Trinamool had won 17 seats. The civic body is now being run by the CPM with former urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharjee as the mayor.Repeated defeat to the CPM in Siliguri is now a cause of concern for Mamata Banerjee, who, it is learnt, will hold a post-poll analysis of her party's poor performance in Siliguri to detect factors responsible for her party's poor show. There is no doubt that ruling party will pull up the North Bengal development minister and party's Darjeeling district committee presi dent Goutam Deb for the poor show in elections after elections. Preliminary analysis of Siliguri results by the ruling party leaders indicate that the Congress had reportedly teamed up with the CPM to ensure defeat of Trinamool Congress in Siliguri.

Even though Trinamool has lost to CPM in Siliguri, the party's overall performance in other districts was superb.In the Congress stronghold of Murshidabad district, Trinamool Congress has managed to make its presence felt strongly by winning 13 gram panchayat seats. Murshidabad is still considered to be a Congress dominated district and state party president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's stronghold. By winning gram panchayat seats, Trinamool Congress has managed to send a signal to the electors that in 2016, they will emerge as a major challenger to Chowdhury and his party . In last year's Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee's party had failed to win any of the three parliamentary seats from the district.

After Wednesday's results, Chowdhury said, “In 2016, Trinamool will come to power again.“ In Purulia which is a part of Jangalmahal, once a Maoist stronghold, Trinamool Congress has won 11 of the 12 gram panchayat seats. Rest of the seat was won by the CPM. At Singur, of the total 25 gram panchayats where byelections were held on Saturday , Trinamool Congress has won 22 seats while CPM and BJP won 2 and 1 seat, respectively . Interestingly , Mamata Banerjee skipped the first conference of her party's farmers wing at Singur in September this year.