Left sweeps Tripura civic polls

Tripura's ruling Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Saturday swept the civic polls across the state, winning all the 20 local government bodies, including Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The Left parties retained the 49-member AMC for the fourth consecutive term while the Left Front retained the 12 municipal councils and all six nagar panchayats.

The Left Front wrested the Ambassa Municipal Council in northern Tripura from the main opposition Congress.

Elections were held to the 144-years-old Agartala Municipal Corporation, 13 municipal councils and five nagar panchayats in Tripura on Wednesday. Around 89 percent of the 537,968 electorate voted in the polls in Left-ruled Tripura.

In all, 886 candidates, including 429 women, from all parties contested the politically important civic polls.

The Left Front, comprising four Left parties and dominated by CPI-M, has won the Jirania Nagar Panchayat in western Tripura as the Left parties got all seats uncontested before the elections.

According to the officials of State Election Commission, out of 310 seats in the 20 local civic bodies, Left parties won in 291 seats while the Congress bagged 13 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party four and independents two.

In the 49-member AMC, the Left parties bagged 45 seats and Congress got four, four seats less than the previous elections.

CPI-M nominee and Mayor of the outgoing AMC, Prafullajit Sinha, Deputy Mayor Samar Chakraborty as well as candidates Fulan Bhattacharjee, Gargi Roy Chowdhury and Biswanath Saha (Forward Bloc) are the notable winners in the AMC while Congress' mayor candidate Amar Ranjan Gupta and prominent leaders Basana Debnath and Panna Deb are among those who lost in the polls.

The 144-year-old Agartala Municipal Corporation is the oldest municipal body in the northeastern region.

The Agartala municipality, which turned into a corporation two years ago, was constituted in 1871.