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Left Front routed in municipal polls in Bengal
Close on the heels of the Lok Sabha election reverses, the Marxist bastion in West Bengal crumbled further on Wednesday with Trinamool Congress and Congress combine winning 13 municipalities among 16 that went to the polls on Sunday.
Close on the heels of the Lok Sabha election reverses, the Marxist bastion in West Bengal crumbled further on Wednesday with Trinamool Congress and Congress combine winning 13 municipalities among 16 that went to the polls on Sunday.
Nine of these municipalities were under the Left control, while six were under Congress and Trinamool Congress.
A new municipality was created at Dankuni in Hooghly district.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front managed to win in only three and that too in a tough contest.
Trinamool Congress wrested key municipalities like Asansol Municipal Corporation, Dum Dum, South Dum Dum, Uluberia, Mahestala, Madhyamgram and Rajpur-Sonarpur in south Bengal districts which were traditionally Left strongholds.
In a ward in Dum Dum, Left Front lost for the first time in 48 years while it had last lost in Asansol in 1980.
Trinamool along with Congress retained control in Kulti and Egra municipalities, while Congress held sway over the Kaliaganj and Islampur civic bodies in north Bengal.
The Left Front won in Rajarhat-Gopalpur in the eastern fringes of the city, Gangarampur in South Dinajpur and Mal in Jalpaiguri district, with the last having been wrested from a Congress-Trinamool board.
