CALCUTTA, 20 June 2005 — An exit poll by a leading TV channel has said the Left Front will return to power in the 141-ward council Calcutta Municipal Corporation (KMC) that went to polls yesterday.
Uttarpara-Kotrung municipality (24 wards) in Hooghly district and the 23-ward Bidhannagar Municipality in Calcutta’s satellite township of Salt Lake too went to the polls.
Violence, however, marred the poll process in Salt Lake where police beat Marxist workers led by a group opposed to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
According to initial reports, 72 percent polling was recorded in Calcutta.
An exit poll by Star TV’s Bengali channel Star Ananda and market research group ACNielsen predicted 86 seats for the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front in the KMC.
The exit poll predicted 39 seats for Trinamool Congress, which wrested the corporation from the CPM in 2000, and 14 to the Congress party and its partners in the United Democratic Alliance, besides two seats to others.
The Trinamool Congress had 46 seats in the outgoing house.
Counting of votes will be held June 21.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee alleged the polling was heavily rigged in Jadavpur area under the assembly constituency of Chief Minister Bhattacharya and that the ruling party had unleashed terror elsewhere.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too alleged widespread electoral malpractices like booth capturing.
While polling was by and large peaceful in Calcutta, Salt Lake witnessed a baton-charge by police on CPM leaders. Police came down heavily on the CPM cadres led by party MP Amitava Nandy and state Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty.
Former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s aide Jayakrishna Ghosh and Nandy were beaten by police in Bidhannagar’s Ward No. 12. Bidhannagar Municipality is ruled by the Left Front.
Earlier on Saturday, battle lines were drawn between CPM leader Subhas Chakraborty and Chief Minister Buddhadeb when the former openly declared he would bring in thousands of cadres from outside to control the polling in Salt Lake.
Buddhadeb, who is also the home minister, had categorically said that police would not spare anybody in their efforts to ensure free and fair polls. CPM leaders of Salt Lake, where at least 97 people were arrested, alleged police excesses.
Last month, the clean sweep by the Left Front in the 79 municipalities across West Bengal vindicated the invincibility of the Marxists and the weakness of an unorganized opposition.
The Left was clearly at an advantage in the KMC poll with the Trinamool Congress suffering from a division of votes after its mayor Subrata Mukherjee severed ties with Mamata over the issue of an alliance with the Congress. Subrata later formed a new political platform.
