West Bengal civic poll results: Trinamool to sweep Kolkata

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress surged ahead in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls as counting of votes for the crucial battle for 81 municipalities, seen as the semi-final before next year's Assembly election was taken up today.

In the 141-ward prestigious KMC, the Trinamool Congress was leading in 98 wards while the Left Front was ahead in 32 out of the 141 constituencies.

Congress, which fought the polls without any seat adjustment with the Trinamool Congress, was way behind with a lead only in seven seats while others led in three.

In another prestigious municipality Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) adjoining Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress was well ahead of the Left Front leading in 18 out of a total 25 wards.

Left Front was leading in seven wards. At present, the Left Front is in power in both the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Bidhannagar municipalities.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that she is 'confident' of her party's victory in the civic polls.

The Congress retained the Katwa Municipality in Burdwan district.

More than 70 per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise in the polls, held two days after the Gyaneshwari Express rail disaster that claimed 148 lives in West Midnapore district.

The elections were held a year after the Lok Sabha polls that saw the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine along with the Socialist Unity Centre of India decimate the ruling Left Front.

But the political equations have substantially changed this time round.

A striking feature of these elections was the failure of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress to clinch a seat-sharing deal.

Both parties contested the polls by themselves in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and almost all the municipalities spread across the state.

The polls are seen as a semi-final before the 2011 Assembly elections. The way the people's will was stamped on the 2009 Lok Sabha poll scoreline was a lesson for the ruling Left Front.