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West Bengal Cong unit proves critics wrong

Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

The West Bengal unit of the Congress, which was written off only recently by political analysts as a has-been, has surprised all and sundry with its impressive performance in Sunday's municipal elections.

Of the 79 municipal bodies that went to the polls, the results of 57 have been announced so far. While the Left Front has won 26 municipalities, the Congress has bagged 15 civic boards.

The Trinamul Congress, which was expected to outclass everybody, performed abysmally, winning only seven municipal boards. Its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, failed to even open its account.

Expectedly, the Gorkha National Liberation Front easily won Darjeeling's Mirik municipality. The polls in the remaining civic bodies in the region resulted in hung houses.

The performance of the Congress has proved all political pundits wrong. They had predicted that the party would be wiped out. The party's unexpected victory assumes greater significance in view of the fact that the Trinamul-BJP combine has only last year, in the general election, proved its credentials as the only capable opposition in the state.

Time and again, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has charged Congress politicians with acting as stooges of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). Buoyed by their party's impressive performance in the civic elections, Congress politicians now say the results will put all such 'baseless' allegations to rest.

Speaking to rediff.com, Pradip Bhattacharya, a West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee official, said his party had expected the results. "The results may be surprising for Mamata Banerjee who often accused us of being the B team of the CPI-M. But the people of West Bengal have given her a fitting reply exposing the hollowness of her charges. This is only the beginning. Watch out for our performance in next year's assembly polls," a jubilant Bhattacharya said.

Trinamul politicians declined to comment, saying they were waiting for the results of all 79 civic bodies.

The Congress has gained in Murshidabad, Malda, Katua in Burdwan and South 24 Parganas. Even in Midnapore, where a by-election is to be held on June 5, the Congress has performed reasonably well. While it retained the Kharagpur Municipal Council, the Left Front has retained Ramjibanpur, Khirpai and Kharar. The only good news for Trinamul was that it opened its account in this district, wresting Contai from Congress.

Congress politicians have described the results of the election as a victory for its workers and the party's secular ideology. They urged Banerjee to part ways with the 'communal' BJP and join hands with her parent party to oust the ruling Left Front. "Had she paid heed to our advice earlier, we could have performed much better. What she didn't realise was that the BJP was only trying to piggyback on her popularity. The saffron party has no base in West Bengal and will never get a mandate from the secular and sensible Bengali electorate," Bhattacharya added.

The state election commission said that owing to slow counting, the complete results could only be announced by early Wednesday.

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