KOLKATA: Ruling Trinamool Congress on Thursday swept all the seven civic bodies that went to polls in West Bengal on Sunday.
While the ruling party bagged 13 of 14 wards in newly-formed Buniadpur municipality in Dakshin Dinajpur district, it swept all the 12 wards of Cooper’s Camp notified area in Nadia district largely due to the defection of senior Congress leader Shankar Singh.
The party bagged 14 of 16 wards in Nalhati municipality in Birbhum district, 12 of 16 wards in Dhupguri municipality in Jalpaiguri district and 17 of 18 wards in Panskura municipality in Purba Medinipur district.
TMC also made deep inroads into Haldia municipality by winning all the 29 wards of the port city. The erstwhile CPM bastion was largely untouched by TMC’s winning ride in 2011.
The ruling party also swept Durgapur Municipal Corporation winning all the 43 wards. Massive violence and alleged rigging were reported in Durgapur during elections on Sunday.
The ruling party has massively improved its results in all the civic bodies when compared to the elections in 2012. TMC had won 11 wards in Haldia, 12 in Panskura, 29 in Durgapur, 8 in Nalhati, 1 in Cooper’s Camp and 11 in Dhupguri in 2012, according to the party’s official website.
Continuing their surge, BJP won four seats in Dhupguri, 1 seat each in Buniadpur and Panskura municipalities and emerged runners up in Haldia and Durgapur, thus pushing the Congress and CPM to distant third positions.