Kolkata: The counting of the votes for the 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election began on Tuesday morning with early trends showing that the Trinamool Congress was heading towards a landslide victory.
"The counting began at 8 am. As per the early trends. The TMC has taken early leads in six wards so far" a State Election Commission official said.
The TMC has taken early leads in ward number 23, 11, 31, 2, 4 and 7.
The early leads available for the 102 wards showed that the ruling party was leading in 93 seats and the opposition cumulatively managed to make a lead in only eight seats and an independent candidate was leading in one seat. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has 144 wards in total.
The early trend also showed that the ruling party might even cross the previous record where the Trinamool Congress got 114 seats, Congress 5 seats, Left Front 15 seats and the BJP managed to win in only 7 seats. Three seats were won by independent candidates. In this election, the ruling Trinamool Congress is likely to increase its tally.
Outgoing mayor Firhad Hakim, who went to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after the results started coming in, told the reporters: "We should accept the mandate of the people. We also did opposition politics for 34 years, but we never questioned the people. They defeated us and we accepted it with a whole heart".
Hitting out at the BJP for their demand for repoll, Hakim said, "One should have the moral courage to accept the people's mandate. The BJP is insulting the common people -- the voters who went all the way from their houses to the polling stations to give their vote. BJP is insulting them. They have given the answers."
The counting is going on under strict security in 11 locations across the city. There is a three-tier security system and the strong rooms and the counting centers have been covered by the CCTVs to avoid any kind of untoward incident. The inner two rings of the security cordon are maintained by the armed forces. The full result is expected to be announced in the afternoon.
When asked whether Firhad Hakim will be the next mayor, senior Trinamool Congress leader said, "That will be decided by the party. Once the result comes in the leadership will decide the future mayor of the city"
Sporadic incidents of violence, including hurling of bombs at two booths, marred the KMC elections on Sunday even as over 63 per cent of the nearly 40.5 lakh voters exercised their franchise.
