PTI/ Team Herald
Kolkata/ Panjim: Ten months after its landslide victory in the West Bengal assembly polls, the ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday steamrolled the entire opposition in the civic elections, bagging 102 of the 108 municipalities in the state, an SEC official said.
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The TMC even secured Kanthi Municipality, the bastion of Leader of Opposition and Nandigram’s BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari. The BJP, the main opposition party in West Bengal failed to win even a single civic body. The Congress, too, was unable to win a single civic body,
The TMC has reduced the opposition’s tally to zero in 27 municipalities, securing all the wards.
TMC Goa president Kiran Khandolkar has congratulated Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee for this resounding victory “She is the only leader who is capable of defeating Narendra Modi in the 2024 elections. These results show that a strong party leadership and party’s grassroots leaders who get the results”
One of the insights of the Kolkata campaign of the TMC was how Mamata Bannerjee and her core team managed to ward off the open resentment of Prashant Kishore and IPAC by the old guard of the party which felt that TMC was getting hijacked by IPAC. Controversies like IPAC allegedly uploading its own list of civic poll candidates, much to the annoyance of many senior leaders have only established this narrative.
Others involved with the Goa TMC on current and former capacities have clearly stated that if the same strategy of the TMC doing the groundwork, instead of it being an IPAC driven exercise which alienated many workers and some candidates, it would have got maximum seats in Goa
In fact, the TMC started off on a potentially winning note when Luizinho Faleiro resigned from the Congress and joined it thinking that he would directly work with Mamata Bannerjee and strengthen her hands, but he too was completely sidelined, especially on major decisions like the alliance with MGP. He had no control over the party or its decisions with IPAC dictating everything, with many insiders believing led to the campaign going out of control and slipping into a messy situation.
It is because of this that many in Goa have looked at the Bengal civic elections and see merit in party functionaries and not agencies leading campaigns. However, MPs Derek O Brien and Mahua Moitra’s behind-the-scenes work and engagements both pre and post-poll indicate that it is they and the party, along with strong local inputs which should have been in the forefront of strategy and decision making.
Prashant Kishore’s recent remarks to Kharan Thapar on “The Wire” that he was many in Goat observe and had nothing to do with the Goa elections directly has left many in Goa TMC including one national functionary fuming and shocked who said that he was insistent and interfering in all aspects of the TMC campaign.
Founding members like lawyers Anotnio Clovis Da Costa and Yatish Naik, who established the party’s Goa narrative and gave it credibility at the start when no one knew TMC in Goa, were sidelined by IPAC, something which both have made no secret of. Yatish Naiks penultimate letter to the party after being humiliated in the ticket distributing exercise.
Naik in his letter to Mamata Bannerjee before he resigned stated. “Party hoppers have found a place as candidates and though I am a founder member of TMC, who joined the party at Kolkata on September 29, my name is kept on hold in spite of two lists being declared…despite bringing all the above issues to the notice of concerned I-PAC persons who are the people at the helm for all reasons nothing has been done and I am compelled to take this decision….”
Naik resigned soon after when an unknown untested entity Bholanath Ghadi was plucked out and given the ticket
Clovis on the other hand did not leave the party but after being shockingly denied the Velim ticket, which he and his supporters blame the IPAC for, did not step out to campaign for Benjamin Silva who joined the party on the eve of polling
TMC Goa is keenly watching how a party-driven campaign in the civic polls led to TMC crushing all opposition wiping out the BJP. TMC’s bete noire Suvendu Adhikari and his family suffered shame in their backyard as the TMC snatched Kanthi Municipality,
Adhikari’s father Sisir Adhikari, was the municipality’s chairman for 25 years from 1971- 2009, except for five years from 1981-86. Suvendiu left the TMC and contested against Mamat in the Assembly polls and won narrowly
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday thanked the people of West Bengal for giving a massive mandate to the ruling Trinamool Congress in the civic elections and called upon winning candidates and supporters to work with humility.
“Heartfelt gratitude to Ma-Mati-Manush for according yet another overwhelming mandate to us”
Goa, especially the TMC here feels that if the party was directly involved and there was humility shown, it could have swept the Goa narrative and campaign
