West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday thanked the people of West Bengal for giving a massive mandate to the ruling Trinamool Congress in the civic elections, and called upon winning candidates and supporters to work with humility.
TMC scored a landslide victory, winning 93 of the 107 municipalities that went to polls on February 27.
"Heart-felt gratitude to Ma-Mati-Manush for according yet another overwhelming mandate to us. Congratulations to the winning candidates of All India Trinamool Congress in the Municipal Elections," she tweeted.
"Let victory enhance our responsibility and dedication. Let triumph impart humility. Let us together work for peace, prosperity and development of the state. Jai Bangla," she said in another Twitter post.
As of now, out of the 2274 wards, TMC has won in 2027 while BJP ended up winner in 63 according to anandabazar.com. The Left Front come up trumps in 64 wards.
“We want to win in all the 108 wards,” former minister and Trinamul’s winning nominee from Cooch Behar municipality’s ward 8 Rabindranath Ghosh had thundered early in the morning.
Any result other than a complete green cover across the civic boards of Bengal would be a loss of face for the ruling Trinamul that had the entire administrative and police machinery backing its organisational strength in the run-up to voting day amid Opposition allegations that the ruling party had vitiated the poll field by widespread use of terror against rivals and and their supporters.
A day before the results, Trinamul’s Dum Dum MP Saugata Roy had expressed regret over the widespread violence on Sunday as a wrong message to the electorate. The state Governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, who has a deep and running feud with the Mamata Banerjee government which borders on the personal, had described Sunday’s polls as "war:".
For the time being, the Trinamul leadership has chosen to ignore the message to tighten its stranglehold over the entire state, as it decimated strongholds of rivals like the Adhikari family of Contai, also the home of Bengal’s leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.
Till last reports, Trinamul had won 17 of the 21 wards, with three going to the BJP. The Adhikari family had a tight grip over Contai and the rest of the two Midnapores since the days the district was undivided. Suvendu had switched to the BJP in December-2020 and defeated Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram in the Assembly polls. This time, the Trinamul’s machinery proved stronger than the Adhikari family’s pull over Contai.
