West Bengal civic polls: Trinamool sweeps Kolkata

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress made a clean sweep in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls winning 98 of the 141 wards. Left Front managed to win 31 wards.

The Left has controlled the KMC since 2005.

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool was also all set to gain control of the Bidhan Nagar municipality, which includes the city's posh satellite township of Salt Lake. Its candidates led in 18 of the 25 seats in Bidhan Nagar, with the Left Front ahead in seven.

In the districts, the Trinamool bagged 26 municipalities while the Left Front got success in 11. The Congress was poised to win in six places.

As the results poured in, Trinamool candidates celebrated wildly all over Kolkata. The outcome is considered a huge blow to the Left, which had been in control of 54 of the 81 civic bodies, including KMC, which saw polling.

The Sunday battle was considered a semi-final ahead of next year's make-or-break assembly elections at a time the Left Front, which has ruled West Bengal since 1977, is facing its most serious challenge to power.

Among the municipalities the Trinamool won were Memari in Burdwan district and Bolpur in Birbhum district as well as Khardah, Baranagar and Naihati in North 24 Parganas district.

The Left Front retained Bally in Hooghly district and Toofanganj and Dinhata in Cooch Behar district in northern West Bengal.

More than 70 percent of the voters exercised their franchise Sunday, two days after the Gyaneshwari Express rail disaster blamed on Maoists claimed 148 lives in West Midnapore.