Siliguri, September 15
With the down slide having begun since last year's panchayat poll, yet another blow was dealt to the CPM-led ruling Left Front in West Bengal today with Trinamool Congress and Congress wresting the Left-controlled Silguri Municipal Corporation after 27 years.

The combine bagged 29 seats of the 47-member board - Congress 15 seats, Trinamool 14 and an Independent backed by the alliance won one. Trinamool had contested 24 seats and Congress 23 for the elections held last Sunday.

The Left Front which had 36 seats, managed to win only 17, with CPM winning 15 and allies Forward Bloc and RSP one each. The Opposition had won only 11 seats in the 2004. The BJP which had won one seat last time drew a blank.

Mayor of the outgoing board Munsi Nurul Islam managed to win, though his deputy Dilip Ray lost.

The civic poll was important for the Left Front to gain some ground after a string of losses and for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool to consolidate its position and make inroads in north Bengal where it was weak compared to ally Congress.

The Left which was almost battered in the last panchayat polls, elections to several municipalities, the Lok Sabha polls and the recent assembly by-elections was desperately hoping for a win in Siliguri.

Retaining the Siliguri civic board could certainly have been a boost to the party before the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections and polls to 82 municipalities next years before the assembly polls in 2011.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose said the results demonstrated that it was not always that development work paid off in polls. The party, he said, would analyse the results.

The outcome triggered calls for resignation of the of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government by Mamata Banerjee and state Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee. "The Left Front has lost moral right to stay in power," said Banerjee.

Mukherjee, on the other hand, said "It is yet another emphatic verdict for change in Bengal. If Congress and Trinamool Congress fight the assembly polls jointly in the 2011 it will get two-thirds majority."

He said defeat for the Left Front was all the more humiliating as Chief Minister Bhattacharjee had vigorously campaigned for the Left Front candidates and camped there for three days.

Bhattacharjee at a recent party rally in Kolkata had called on the partymen to stage a turnaround and surge ahead, countering the challenge thrown up by those "who want to stop us". — PTI