Kamal Ghorui
KOLKATA: The saffron surge in the Bengal assembly elections, which swept BJP to office for the first time in the state, saw the party leading in 102 of the 144 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), fuelling speculation about how long Trinamool Congress can hold on to the civic body.The tenure of the current KMC board, which has been under Trinamool’s control since 2010, ends in Dec 2026. However, a BJP functionary said party seniors are weighing the option of advancing KMC polls to cash in on the saffron surge in the city. Currently, KMC has 134 councillors from Trinamool and only three from BJP. The remaining are from CPM and Congress or are Independents. In 2021 assembly polls, Trinamool was ahead in 131 wards and BJP in 12. Mamata Banerjee’s party sustained the momentum of that victory and was voted back to office with a huge majority in the KMC polls held in Dec that year. BJP’s footprint in Kolkata, however, has been growing since then, as evidenced in the 2024 LS polls, which saw Trinamool leading the race in 96 wards (down from 134 it won in the 2021 civic elections) and BJP ahead in 46 (up from three). Kolkata’s 144 wards are spread across 17 assembly constituencies. Of these, BJP won 10 seats and TMC seven in the recently concluded polls. In the 2021 assembly polls, all 17 seats in the KMC area opted for TMC.
