Mira Ghosh was the last of all contesting candidates from borough X to leave the counting centre on Tuesday.

The CPM candidate from Ward 100 was sad and angry: sad because the results went against her by only three votes and angry because the municipal returning officer turned down her request for a recounting.

When she left Jodhpur Park Boys' School around 1.30pm, all the winners had been handed over certificates confirming their victories. Mira's rival, Sushmita Dam of Trinamul, too, had received her certificate and had left the venue celebrating with her supporters.

"I had appealed to the municipal returning officer around 11am. He didn't say anything. He went on delaying a decision and didn't give an answer. Much later he told me to submit a written appeal for recounting," said Mira.

The 54-year-old schoolteacher contested the elections for the first time this year. She said the results were declared more than an hour after she had demanded a recounting.

At a news conference in the evening, state election commissioner SR Upadhaya was asked about the demand for recounting.

Upadhaya said he had not received any written appeal for recounting. "I did not receive any written appeal for recounting. Besides, it is the discretion of the municipal returning officer and the district magistrate of South 24-Parganas to allow a recounting."

The district magistrate of South 24-Parganas is the district municipal election officer for the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) polls.

Mira said the state election commissioner was "lying" because she had submitted a written appeal to the municipal returning officer (MRO) of borough X. "I gave a written appeal to the MRO and he also gave me a written reply," she said.

The margin of loss - three votes - and a confusion regarding the margin of victory had triggered the call for a recounting. The Trinamul had initially thought that Mira had won the election by 14 votes.

"The Trinamul people inside the counting booth thought we had won by 14 votes. When we found that we had lost by three votes, we demanded a recounting," said Deepak Sengupta, Mira's election agent.

Municipal elections are often lost or won by a single digit or two-digit margin. But the three-vote victory of Trinamul this time stands in stark contrast to some mammoth margins of victory.

Trinamul's Sitaram Jaiswara won from Ward 1 by 15,346 votes. Shams Iqbal of Trinamul won Ward 134 by 12,600 votes.

Ward 100, from where Mira lost by three votes, is the ward from where Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya was elected when he became mayor in 2005.

A former chief electoral officer of Bengal said there was no rule that made a recounting mandatory in case of a slender margin. "There are no rules that make a recounting mandatory. The returning officer has full discretion to decide whether to allow an appeal for a recounting," the officer said.

Sushmita, the Trinamul candidate who won, also spoke about the confusion regarding the margin. Their counting had suggested that she won by 14 votes, she said.

All parties have their representatives inside counting centres and they do their own counting.

"I was not at the counting centre. I left home only when I was told that I had won by 14 votes," she said. "When I reached the venue, I heard I had won by four votes. But when I got the winner's certificate, I found out that I had won by three votes."

Sushmita teaches music at Patha Bhavan school.

CPM leader Mohammad Salim said: "We are pleasantly surprised that we put up such a great fight in the ward."