West Bengal municipal elections 2022: Polling underway in Siliguri, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar and Asansol

File Photo (ANI)

New Delhi: The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) will on Saturday (February 12, 2022) conduct the civic polls in four municipal corporations -- Siliguri, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar and Asansol.

Voting has started at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm. The counting will be held on February 14.

In Bidhannagar, a total of 203 candidates are contesting in 41 wards, while in Siliguri, there are 200 contestants in 47 wards. There are 120 aspirants for 33 wards in Chandannagar, while Asansol has 106 wards for which a total of 430 candidates are contesting.

Hooghly: People cast their votes for Municipal Corporation election in Chandannagar as the #WestBengalCivicPolls gets underway. pic.twitter.com/y1PU2N9Qkr — ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2022

People cast their votes at Bidhannagar Govt. High school after thermal checking and sanitization#WestBengalCivicPolls pic.twitter.com/ZvAGCXbYrC

— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2022

The state election body had earlier announced to conduct the polls in these four municipal corporations on January 22 but following the high court directive, it had to defer it to February 12.

The West Bengal SEC will also hold the civic polls in 108 municipalities in the state on February 27. The elections were due for nearly two years but could not be held due to the Covid-19 situation.

Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is looking for a clean sweep in the elections while the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), CPI(M)-led Left Front and Congress seek to make a comeback after disconcerting results in the 2021 Assembly polls.

The opposition parties have alleged strong-arm tactics by TMC supporters to browbeat their candidates into submission, while the ruling party pooh-poohed such claims as attention-grabbing tactics.

In the 2015 elections, Siliguri was won by the Left Front, while the three other municipal corporations were secured by the TMC. 

The BJP is expected to give a strong fight in Asansol, where it had its MP for two consecutive terms from 2014 till Babul Supriyo resigned and joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party in 2021.

The Left Front, which was wiped out from the West Bengal assembly in the 2021 elections, is pinning hopes of doing well in Siliguri under the stewardship of the north Bengal city's former mayor Ashok Bhattacharya, a senior CPI(M) leader and minister in the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya cabinet till 2011.

With its candidate Shankar Ghosh, who left the CPI(M) to join the BJP, winning from Siliguri assembly constituency in 2021, the saffron party may also put up a spirited fight in this municipal corporation.

In Bidhannagar, the TMC has fielded the first mayor of the relatively-new municipal corporation Sabyasachi Dutta from ward 31 of the municipal corporation. He had joined the saffron party in 2019, unsuccessfully contested as a BJP candidate in the 2021 assembly polls and returned to his former party later.

Election to Kolkata Municipal Corporation was held in December, where most of the 144 wards were won by the TMC, even as the opposition alleged malpractices and inaction of police. 

While the BJP emerged as the main opposition party in the state with 77 seats, the Left Front and the Congress could not open their accounts in the 2021 elections to the 294-seat West Bengal assembly, which was swept by the Mamata Banerjee-led party with a huge mandate.

(With agency inputs)