CALCUTTA, JULY 8: With Trinamool Congress candidate Subrata Mukherjee emerging victorious in the election for Mayor of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, party chief Mamata Banerjee has won the ``semi-finals'' in her battle for the Writers' Building.Mukherjee triumphed over his CPI(M) rival Kanti Ganguly by getting 66 votes against his 62, paving the way for a Trinamool-controlled Board at the CMC. Out of the total 141 councillors, 128 cast their vote while the Congress's 13 councillors remained absent, as announced by the party earlier.There was unprecedented security at the CMC building in central Calcutta where the poll took place. A large number of policemen were present at the building where hundreds of supporters of both parties had gathered. Entry to the CMC was restricted and nobody without valid passes was allowed in. ``Our target now is to win the Assembly elections next year and dislodge the Left Front,'' Mukherjee told journalists after the elections. ``Winning the Panskura elections created a nor'wester which had first uprooted the Left Front from the Corporation where they had been in power for the last 15 years. Now we are sure that the nor'wester is going to uproot the Marxists from the Writers' Building next year,'' a beaming Mukherjee said.However, the Trinamool had to face one uncomfortable fact. While the party had herded together 67 councillors for the past few days at the Central Government Hostel in south Calcutta and had claimed their support, one of them ended up voting for the rival candidate as the results showed that Mukherjee got 66 votes, and not 67 as it expected. ``We will investigate and find out who the culprit was,'' Mukherjee said. ``Action will be taken against him or her soon,'' he added.Meanwhile a dejected CPI(M) attributed Trinamool's victory to horse-trading. ``Trinamool has won the Mayoral election by horse-trading,'' Anil Biswas, secretary of the CPI(M) state committee, told journalists at a press conference at the party office after the elections. ``We consider horse-trading as a crime which has been introduced in West Bengal by Mamata Banerjee. Ours was a moral victory as we got 62 votes whereas their strength has gone down to 66. The people are not fools. They will realise their worth very soon,'' Biswas said.The party official, who is also a Politburo member, said the Mayoral election would have no impact on the coming Assembly elections in the state, admitting at the same time that the CPI(M)'s defeat at CMC was the result of the coming together of anti-CPI(M) forces. ``Anti-Left forces have grouped together, but I believe it is a temporary phenomenon. And Assembly elections is a totally different ball game and it is still quite some time away. So I do not foresee any Left debacle in the coming elections,'' Biswas said.The party state secretary also lamented the role played by the Congress. ``Their activities had helped the Trinamool win the Mayoral election,'' he said.
