Red fort Siliguri falls to Mamata blow

Ending Left's 3-decade rule in the area and indicating growing disenchantment with the ruling combine,Trinamool Congress-Cong combine won the Siliguri Municipal seat in a landslide victory.

Ending the Left Fronts three-decade rule in the area and indicating the growing disenchantment with the ruling combine in the state,the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine on Tuesday won the Siliguri Municipal Corporation in a landslide victory.

While the Trinamool and Congress won 30 of the 47 seats in the corporation,the Left Front won 17. In the 2004 polls,the Left Front had won 38 seats,the Congress four and the Trinamool five.

Ironically,it was one of the few municipal corporations that has performed well,with West Bengals Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharjee being a resident of the area and an MLA from here. The party had made the election a prestige issue calling it a turnaround poll for the party.

Not only had Ashok Bhattacharjee actively campaigned,but he had also also roped in Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his wife. In contrast,Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee did not visit even once.

As a jubilant Mamata called it demolition of the Red fort and said I fail to understand why the CPM is still holding on to power,the Chief Minister chose a philosophical reply. Asked about the defeat,he broke a long public silence to say: There is victory,and there is defeat in life.

The victory was another sign that the Trinamool-Congress alliance can be lethal for the Left in the state if it functions in coordination. With the Siliguri win,the combination has gained a foothold in north Bengal,which had been an unquestioned bastion of the Left for long.

The results also indicate that Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporters voted for the Congress and Trinamool. GJM leaders admitted that it was pointless voting for the BJP and there is no question of them voting for the Left Front. Gorkhas constitute a substantial portion of the voting population in the plains of Siliguri.

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People have driven the last nail in the CPMs coffin through the mandate they gave today. It is time for change, Mamata said in reaction to the verdict,asking the Chief Minister to resign. Assembly by-election,madrasa election,municipal election,college election,school election… we are winning all of them.

While the Congress hailed the result as a sign of its rejuvenation,Mamata incidentally said it was the entry of the Trinamool that had made the difference. The Congress had contested the Lok Sabha polls and we had lost in all the 47 wards, she noted.