Garden Reach bldg collapsezone stands by Trinamool
Times of India | 10 June 2024
Kolkata: On March 18, thirteen people were killed when a five-storey under-construction building collapsed on the neighbouring slum at Azhar Molla Bagan Lane in Garden Reach under ward 134. The tragedy left 22 families homeless. Eighty-nine of them had stepped out on June 1 to vote.
The Trinamool can now breathe easy with the party securing a healthy lead from the entire ward.Trinamool MP from Kolkata South Mala Roy leads by 10,130 votes in this minority dominated ward over CPM that bagged 4,867 votes. In ward 134, a total of 22,134 votes were cast. Most of these votes went to Trinamool, which received 14,997 votes. BJP received 1,603 votes.
On polling day, TOI had spoken to one such homeless man, Hashmat Ali, who has to support six members of his family. “The only thing intact is the main door that has my father’s name on it,” Ali had said, adding, “Trinamool has promised to rebuild my home after the . I am keeping my fingers crossed.”
“My husband was an avid party worker and during elections, he was hardly found at home. In his absence, I asked the women in the neighbourhood to go out and cast their votes in the morning itself,” Kahkasha Nizami, wife of Sheroo Nizami, who was the last one to be pulled out of the debris, had told TOI.
This margin is much lower than what was secured by the party in the 2021 assembly elections, and months later, the KMC elections. This is also lower than the 2015 margin of local councillor Shams Iqbal.
TMC had secured 24,708 votes in 2021 KMC elections with none of the opposition — BJP, Congress and CPM — able to put up a candidate. The independents had polled 697 votes in all. In 2015, TMC had secured 15,467 votes against 3,002 by the Congress, handing the party a 12,465-vote lead.
Councillor Shams Iqbal said, “The incident was very unfortunate. It happened due to a promoter’s fault. But people have seen the development in the area, which exceeded their expectations,” he said.