Kolkata flips, BJP leads in 102 of 144 civic wards | India News
KOLKATA: The saffron wave in the Bengal assembly elections, which brought the BJP to office for the first time in the state, with the party leading in 102 of the 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), has fueled speculation about how long the Trinamool Congress can retain the civic body.The term of the current KMC board, which has been under Trinamool control since 2010, ends in December 2026. However, a BJP official said party seniors are mulling the option of bringing forward the KMC elections to cash in on the saffron wave in the city. Currently, the Trinamool has 134 councilors in the KMC and the BJP only three. The rest are CPM and Congress or Independents. In the 2021 assembly elections, the Trinamool was leading in 131 wards and the BJP in 12. Mamata Banerjee’s party maintained that winning momentum and returned to office with a huge majority in the KMC elections held in December that year. The BJP’s footprint in Kolkata, however, continued to grow ever since, as evidenced in the 2024 LS polls, where the Trinamool was leading in 96 wards (down from the 134 it won in the 2021 civic polls) and the BJP in 46 (up from three). Kolkata has 144 wards spread across 17 assembly constituencies. Out of these, BJP won 10 seats and TMC seven seats in the recently concluded polls. In the 2021 assembly elections, all 17 seats in the KMC area were chosen by the TMC.
