Siliguri (West Bengal), Sep 15 (IANS) West Bengal’s ruling Left Front (LF) Tuesday faced yet another electoral debacle with the opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress alliance wresting the Siliguri Municipal Corporation in North Bengal after 27 years of uninterrupted Left rule.
According to the district administration, the opposition alliance secured 30 seats while the LF managed to get only 17.

“People of Siliguri have been seeking a change for long. But the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) stood in the way by using muscle power and money power. This time, they could vote for a political change ignoring the CPI-M’s intimidation,” Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

“We welcome this spontaneous decision of common people and dedicate this victory to the Ma-Maati-Manush (mother-land-people). The Left Front should immediately resign,” she said.

“Ma-Maati-Manush” has been Banerjee’s slogan in the run-up to the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

There are altogether 47 wards in Siliguri Municipality.

Trinamool Congress won in 14 seats while its ally Congress secured victory in 15 municipal wards. A Trinamool Congress supported independent candidate, Ranjan Sil Sharma, also won.

The LF won 17 seats - the CPI-M got 15, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Forward Bloc (FB) one each in the polls.

“The result was quite unexpected. I thought people will accept our development drive but they voted for a change - a political alternative,” CPI-M leader in Siliguri and state’s Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Ashok Bhattacharya said.

He said: “We will try to bring back the support of common people through our political programme. We tried to counter our opposition politically but people didn’t vote for us. They chose the opposition force. We must learn a lesson from it.”

In the last Siliguri municipal polls, the ruling LF won in 36 seats leaving only 11 civic wards to the oppositions Congress, Trinamool Congress and other political parties.

The Siliguri Municipal Corporation is a continuation of the story of the Trinamool-Congress combine’s continuing successes and the LF’s fast eclipse in the state.

The LF, which has been in power since 1977, lost the rural body polls last year, before being crushed in the Lok Sabha elections as also civic body polls and assembly by-elections.