‘BJP’s KMC poll debacle will not be repeated in districts’

Kolkata, Dec 24 (PTI):
BJP vice-president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday asserted that his party’s Kolkata civic poll debacle will not be repeated in the upcoming elections to 111 other municipal bodies as the saffron camp, with all its might, will “counter attempts of rigging” by members of the ruling TMC.
He stressed that the BJP has strong foundation in several districts of the state, where it was sure to perform better, unlike what it did in Kolkata.
“KMC elections, swept by the TMC, were marked by large-scale rigging. The TMC cannot repeat the experiment in municipal polls to be held in the districts as the BJP has a stronger base in many places. The outcome in the districts will be different,” he claimed.
A senior BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, however, stated that the party has a deep-rooted foundation in Kolkata, too, but it could not perform well “in the face of threats and intimidation”.
Making light of Ghosh’s claims, West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim, who has also been named the mayor of Kolkata, said that the saffron party will “lose miserably” everywhere in the state.
In the just-concluded Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections, the TMC clinched 134 wards, the BJP just three and the Congress and the CPI(M) two each. Three seats were bagged by Independent candidates.