The Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s upcoming elections appears to be a cakewalk for the ruling Trinamul, which has been running the civic body for over 10 years, even though all three of its former mayors have been indicted over corruption charges.
While the city has been long painted in Trinamul colours, the Left, despite its seemingly impenetrable 34 years at Writers’ Buildings, was never much favoured by Calcuttans when it came to the Assembly polls. “There were two distinct voting patterns in the Assembly and CMC polls. We had our pockets of strength,” said a CPM central committee member.
Adding wards from the adjoining areas, especially Jadavpur which was a CPM stronghold till the Trinamul swept it away 12 years ago, helped the CPM tackle its lack of support in the northern and southern parts of the city.
After the 2021 Assembly elections that established the Trinamul’s hegemony across the state, wiping the Left and the Congress altogether and leaving crumbs for the BJP, neither of the Opposition parties are confident of even putting up a fight, leave aside wresting the 145-years old civic body from Bengal’s youngest political party.
In 1996 when Mamata Banerjee was still with the Congress, the Grand Old Party bagged the most number of seats in nearly two decades (82), from its lowest (20) in 1977. In between these 19 years the Congress controlled municipalities like Berhampore, Krishnagar, Cooper’s Camp, Ranaghat, Joynagar-Majilpur, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and some others for years together. Even the Trinamul Congress, in a little over two years, had won no less than the Calcutta Municipal Corporation in the year 2000.
“During Left rule, while it would indulge in all kinds of electoral malpractices, intimidation of voters, booth agents even candidates, they would leave the elected representatives undistubred once results were declared,” said a veteran Congress leader. “That is the reason why even a Subrata Mukherjee who became mayor on a Trinamul ticket, while he was still a Congress MLA could get the government’s support for the improvement of Calcutta.”
That distinction has long been erased. The Trinamul Congress after being voted to power in the state and in panchayats and civic bodies has always attempted to gain complete control, at times by engineering defections.
Ahead of Sunday’s polling, the worry for the Trinamul is for the Mamata-loyalists in the party who have been given tickets to contest for the councillor’s post, despite the combined opposition of the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and poll strategist Prashant Kishore.
Abhishek Banerjee File Picture
If rejecting the names of candidates proposed by Kishore and his former company was Mamata’s way of showing who the boss is when it comes to party matters in Bengal, a thumping victory will further secure her position. On the other hand, if the decision to field familiar faces backfires, Mamata would come under pressure to leave organisational responsibilities entirely with the Abhishek-PK combination.
In the Assembly polls, the Trinamul had won all the 11 seats in Calcutta. The BJP, jolted by voters’ apathy in the Assembly polls and stung by defections since, no longer has the organisational power to take on the Trinamul’s might. The Congress too is only hopeful of retaining two of its councillors Prakash Upadhyay and Santosh Pathak, who have stood their ground against the Trinamul’s money and muscle power.
“I am going to win by a record margin. Otherwise, I will quit politics,” said Prakash Upadhyay, the incumbent councillor of ward 28.
While the Left and the Congress did not enter into any official alliance in some of the wards, booth level workers of the CPM have been campaigning for Congress nominees.
