Workers of the Trinamool Congress celebrate in Bengal. (PTI Photo)
In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress, has swept the civic elections and the icing on the cake too - the Kolkata Corporation. Ms Banerjee has thanked the people for the stupendous verdict but the opposition is crying rigging and violence. For the Left, there is only one major feather in the cap: Siliguri where a former CPM minister led the fight from the front. For the BJP, failure to improve upon its Lok Sabha poll performance, though its numbers in Kolkata have doubled.
As green gulal swept across West Bengal, the Trinamool scored 70 out of 92, the Left six and the Congress five. Eleven civic bodies are hung and the Trinamool hopes to bag most of them as well. But the biggest prize of all - the Kolkata Municipal Corporation went to the Trinamool with a thumping 114 seats out of 144.
No wonder, the first thing Ms Banerjee did was re-anoint Sovan Chatterjee as Kolkata's mayor.
"He has done a good job the last five years and I am sure he will do better this time," Ms Banerjee said, placing her hand in blessing on Mr Chatterjee's head at the end of a press conference at her residence.
"We ae grateful to the people and, on behalf of the Trinamool, I thank the ma mati manush of Bengal. My 'pronam' (regards) to them all for voting for us despite slander by the opposition and a section of the media," Ms Banerjee said.
But there are some blisters. The BJP has doubled its score in Kolkata, from three to seven, and two of those seats have come from Ms Banerjee's Assembly constituency. Also, though the BJP has failed to form the board in a single municipality, the number of wards it has won across Bengal is up from 16 to 81.
"We are strengthening our organization and 2016 we will be the right platform from where we can give neck to neck fight and I am confident in 2016 we will form government in Bengal," said Asim Basu, who won from ward 70 in Ms Banerjee's constituency.
For the Left, Siliguri has come as the biggest consolation. It has won 23 out of 47 seats there, making it the biggest party though it needs either the Congress or an independent's support to bag a clear majority of 24 seats. The Siliguri result is being called the "Ashok Bhattacharya model". Mr Bhattacharya was a senior CPM minister who decided to fight for a coouncillor's seat in Siliguri.
Other than Siliguri, however, the Left's performance was dismal. It got 15 seats in Kolkata Corporation, down from 31 last time. And it lost control of 12 municipalities and is left with only six this time.
"You can see what is happening in Bengal everywhere. TMC goons are attacking, killing, attacking democratic rights, snatching voting rights also," said Mr Bhattacharya. He was echoing the common Opposition complaint, including of the Congress which got five seats in Kolkata and five civic bodies outside: rigging and poll violence. But Ms Banerjee was dismissive.
"You are the best judge, you can reply. The people have replied, I think so," Ms Banerjee said.
Clearly, the results have come as a huge boost to the Trinamool Congress which heads for Assembly elections next year. Many have called the municipal polls the semi-finals. In which case, Trinamool can sit back on its laurels for a while.