Midnapore Municipality poll to be held tomorrow

Midnapore, Jun 28 (UNI) The Midnapore Municipality is scheduled to go to the polls tomorrow with the Nandigram factor expected to play a key role in the mandate.

The CPI(M) has exuded confidence that they will be voted to power this time owing to the development work and claimed that the party could provide a stable Municipal Board to the people.

In its long municipal history, the electorate in Midnapore has never favoured a Left Front alliance in the Board.

In the last Municipality election in 2003, the Congress had won seven seats, TMC five, BJP one, CPM nine and Independents two seats.

As a result, a Congress-TMC-BJP alliance came to occupy the Board with Nazim Ahmed as its Chairman.

After two years, however, Mr Ahmed and another Congress Councillor defected from the party. They, alongwith two Independent candidates, formed the Bikash Parishad with the CPM supporting them from outside.

Subsequently, the CPM became the guiding force in running the administration of the Midnapore Municipality, helping Bikash Parishad in development work with money sanctioned from the Left Front government in the state.

This time the Bikash Parishad, from the beginning, entered into an alliance with the Left Front contesting all the 24 seats in the municipality while the Trinamool Congress had allied only with the SUCI.

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