Clean sweep of Kolkata for Left

With the Left Front making a clean sweep in all the municipalities in the city’s surrounding areas, the past trend of the Nationalist T...

With the Left Front making a clean sweep in all the municipalities in the city’s surrounding areas, the past trend of the Nationalist Trinamool Congress (NTC) enjoying support in Kolkata and the adjoining regions may no longer hold true.

While the NTC, along with the Indian National Congress (INC), held five municipalities earlier, four were wrested by the Left Front (LF), with the Baruipur municipality being hung. The LF has retained all seven seats it held earlier too.

With all the municipalities in the 24 Parganas, both north and south, being taken by the LF, it is now clear that despite the presence of the city-centric Congress and the Trinamool, the LF has the upper hand.

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Sunday’s poll results are likely to have an impact on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls slated for June 19. The Congress and Trinamool now have some cause to worry since the voting pattern of these areas, known as Greater Kolkata, is usually similar to the pattern in Kolkata itself.

‘‘If the Congress and Trinamool had been allies, we would have had a much better result against the LF,’’ said Manas Bhuina, PCC general secretary. The Trinamool, however, blamed rigging by the LF. ‘‘The only reason for our defeat is the age-old tradition of manipulation of votes by the CPI(M),’’ alleged Pankaj Banerjee, leader of the Opposition.

The Trinamool’s support seems to have waned in the urban and suburban belts. Trinamool sources admitted that today’s results would increase the pressure on Mamata Banerjee to become part of the mahajot.