Didi leaves Left red-faced

The Trinamul Congress inflicted a crushing defeat on the Left Front in Sunday’s civic elections across West Bengal and won a landslide victory in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, bagging 95 seats in the 141-member body. Its first-ever victory in the municipality of upscale Salt Lake came as the icing on the cake.

The Trinamul Congress also won a big chunk of the 81 municipalities across the state which went to the polls, but there was a “hung” outcome in a large number.

The Trinamul won 27 of the 81 municipalities, with the Left getting 18 and the Congress seven. The results were “hung” in 29 municipalities.

The civic polls, projected as the “semi-finals” before the elections to the state Assembly, due next year, established the Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s supremacy on the state’s polity. Describing the results as a clear mandate against the Left Front, she demanded immediate Assembly elections.

“This is a historic and revolutionary victory. It proves that the people of Bengal are impatient for change,” she said.