Left sweeps Tripura municipal election

A REPORTER

AGARTALA, Dec 12 : The ruling Left Front made a clean sweep in the Tripura municipal election winning all the 20 civic bodies across the State including the 49-seat Agartala Municipal Corporation dumping the Congress into the brink while the Bharatiya Jata Party remained a non-entity in the State.

In Agartala Municipal Corporation the ruling Left Front won 45 seats and the Congress that won 8 seats in last election could retain half of it by winning only four seats. As the fil tally goes the Left Front candidates won 291 out of total 310 seats in all the municipal bodies while only 19 went in favour of the opposition Congress (13), BJP (4) and the Independents(2).

In 12 municipal council and gar Panchayat bodies the opposition could not open the score. These are Teliamura, Ambassa, Ranir Bazar, Khowai, Belonia, Santir Bazar, Melaghar, Mohanpur, Kamalpur, Jirania, Amarpur, Subroom and Panisagar. Among them the Congress had won Ambassa and Subroom in 2010 election.

Bijon Dhar, State secretary of the CPI (M) said the people has reposed their faith on the Left Front and congratulated the voters. He said the outcome has increased our responsibilities as peoples expectation is going high.

One of the significant features of the outcome is, the BJP could win only four seats, two each in Dharmagar and Kumarghat, but emerged second in six municipal bodies Dharmagar, Panisagar, Kumarghat, Kailasahar and Belonia. They also emerged as deciding factor in many other constituencies including in Agartala Municipal Council where the congress candidates lost due to division of votes.

Despite a massive victory throughout the State the Left Front had a bitter test in Kailasahar where two dissident CPI (M) leaders won as independent contesting the election under the banner of Kailasahar Unyan Mancha.

The Leader of the Opposition Sudip Roy Barman said, “The results do not reflect the peoples sentiment as the ruling CPI (M) adopted massive unethical methods to influence the outcome and terrorized the voters.” He also admitted that in some places the BJP become a factor. Sudhindra Dasgupta, the State president of BJP, is not happy with the result but said it reflects that the BJP is emerging as a political power in Tripura.