Kolkata civic poll results a wake-up call for national parties: NCP

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majeed Memon on Wednesday said the civic poll results in favour of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal should be a pointer to national parties that they must deliver on promises or people will vote them out.

Showering praise on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Memon said, "We must appreciate Mamataji's efforts. She knows the pulse of the people. Definitely, the TMC is a strong force to reckon with."

"This is an indication that in our country, still in various states, the local leaders do call the shots, and national parties, which probably may be under impression that they can always sweep, will now have to reconsider that people of this country are always in favour of those who deliver and those who work for the poor, the labourers, the farmers etc," he added.

The NCP leader further said Mamata's victory in the civic polls is indeed a welcome result for the TMC.

In a major boost to the TMC ahead of the assembly polls next year, it scored a landslide victory in 71 of the 92 civic bodies in West Bengal.

The TMC wrested control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation by winning 114 of the 144 wards.

The BJP, which was hoping to replace the Left as the main opposition in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, could manage to win seven seats. It had three previously.

The Congress managed to win only five seats.

The CPI (M)-led Left Front was reduced to just 15 seats, while the independents bagged three.