Enough strength to rule WB alone: Trinamool Congress

Buoyed with its success in the municipal election in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said the poll results have demonstrated that the party has enough strength to rule the state alone.

"It has been proved by the results of these elections that the Trinamool Congress has enough strength to rule Bengal alone," the party all-India general secretary Mukul Roy told a press conference after winning four of the six municipal bodies which went to polls on June 3.

Though allies in the central and state governments, Trinamool and Congress contested the civic elections separately.

"It has been established that in Bengal, Trinamool can fight and win elections alone. We fought against the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Maoists," Roy, who is also the railway minister, said.

"The results have shown that not only the CPI-M, but there are some other parties which are going to be insignificant in Bengal politics," Roy said.

"The results of the civic polls have proved that the people are with Trinamool Congress and again they have shown confidence in the leadership of Mamata Banerjee," he claimed, adding that his party has reached 72 seats from 19 it held earlier in the total 129 seats over the six municipal bodies spread over the state.

Roy said, "The Left Front's share has come down to 38 from 79 seats." On the Congress retaining the Cooper's Camp civic body in Nadia district, he said it was a "stray happening" and is "not significant".

Trinamool secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said, "Earlier we had seven seats when we were in alliance with the Congress; this time we have won 11 seats by going it alone."

The polls to six civic bodies were the first major local elections after the 2011 Assembly polls when Trinamool Congress had stormed to power ending the Left Front's 34-year rule in West Bengal.

Trinamool won in Left citadel Dhupguri, Panskura and Nalhati and in the industrial township of Durgapur. Left Front captured the Haldia municipality, while the Cooper's Camp civic body saw the Congress winning.