70% turnout in crucial West Bengal civic polls

About 70 per cent of the electorate cast their votes today for civic body polls in West Bengal, considered crucial ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, amid reports of sporadic clashes.

The polls were held in 81 civic bodies and in the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation involving an electorate of 8.5 million.

The result of today’s elections, which will be declared on June 2, is important on various counts. It will indicate whether the ruling Left Front has been able to reverse the downward trend it had suffered in the last general elections in 2009. Also, it will be an acid test for the Congress, as unlike the Lok Sabha elections, this time it did not enter into an electoral alliance with the main opposition Trinamool Congress (TC).

Chief Mamata Banerjee has decided to go alone to consolidate the entire anti-Left vote under her wings, which would give a better bargaining point with the Congress during the next year’s Assembly elections.

In the 2009 general elections, the Left Front got a drubbing at the hands of the combined Opposition of the TC and the Congress, winning just 15 seats of a total of 42. This led to speculation that a major political shift was taking place in the state, where the Left has been in power since 1977.

This time, too, the ruling front is expected to lose a good number of seats to the TC.