Mamata Banerjee maintains winning record in municipal elections

KOLKATA: Monday's civic poll results in West Bengal reflected chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s growing popularity in the state’s urban areas and the inability of the opposition Congress and CPM to reverse that trend.

The results will worry both parties before next year's Lok Sabha elections as they have failed to improve their performance since the June-July panchayat elections when both of them were routed by the ruling Trinamool Congress, which has maintained its winning record since 2011. Banerjee’s party had won 13 of 17 zilla parishads in the panchayat elections in June-July.

Trinamool Congress won four of the five municipalities where elections took place on Friday. Congress managed to retain the Berhampore municipality, but the Trinamool Congress won two wards in the civic body for the first time in 15 years, which will be a matter of worry for minister of state for railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as far as organisational capacity is concerned. In past civic polls, Congress won all wards under Chowdhury's leadership.

CPM was worst hit in the civic elections. The Marxists lost the Howrah Municipal Corporation to Trinamool for the first time since 1977, when the Left Front government came to power in West Bengal. The Jhargram municipality in Jangalmahal was also won by Banerjee's party for the first time. The civic body was under CPM's control since its formation in 1982.

Trinamool Congress won the four municipalities of Midnapore and and Jhargram in Jangalmahal, Krishnanagar in Nadia district and the Howrah Municipal Corporation. Apart from elections to the five civic bodies, by-elections to 29 wards under various municipalities also took place on Friday. Trinamool Congress won 23 of those wards.

Trinamool Congress all-India general secretary Mukul Roy told reporters that the people of the state had reposed their faith in Banerjee once again. “People of our state are happy with Mamata Banerjee's government which is carrying out development activities across the state since 2011 when she became the chief minister,” Roy said.