New Kolkata Municipal Corporation board by Dec 7, civic election after delimitation: CM Suvendu Adhikari
Times of India | 16 June 2026
KOLKATA: Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on Monday that elections to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be held after delimitation of wards and a new civic board will be in place by Dec 7.
The KMC elections, he said, will be held along with polls to other civic bodies, including Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC).
Prior to the civic polls, Adhikari said, Kolkata will undergo delimitation, or restructuring of wards. The last delimitation in Kolkata, which has 144 wards, with a huge population variance between them, was carried out in 2010.
“The election will definitely be held within six months. By Dec 7, the state election commission (SEC) will hand over KMC to elected public representatives,” Adhikari said at the launch of a cleanliness drive at the KMC headquarters.
SEC, which has been functioning without a chief since former state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha stepped down last Sept, has a challenging task ahead as the terms of 127 municipalities and municipal corporations across Bengal are set to expire over the next six months.
Adhikari said KMC is poised to get central and state funds for the improvement of the city’s infrastructure and environment. “While KMC can gain Rs 600 crore from the state govt, it is entitled to get Rs 500 crore under Swacchh Bharat and Rs 500 crore under Namami Gange,” he said.
The CM’s announcement on the KMC polls follows the resignation of Firhad Hakim as Kolkata’s mayor on June 5, which led to the dissolution of the civic board. The board’s term was set to expire in Dec.
After Hakim put in his papers, the state urban development department appointed KMC commissioner Smita Pandey as administrator of the civic body.
Pointing to the stalemate that followed Hakim’s resignation, the CM said Trinamool was given 72 hours to select a new mayoral candidate as BJP didn’t believe in back-door politics.
“As they failed to reach a consensus, we had to appoint an administrator to run KMC,” the CM said.
In BMC, too, the commissioner was appointed as administrator after Trinamool’s Krishna Chakraborty resigned from the mayor’s post. HMC, where elections have not been held since 2018, is also under an administrator.
Adhikari said an administrator could not run KMC indefinitely as the law says an election has to be held within six months of the dissolution of the board. “We have no interest in doing anything through the back door. Everything will be transparent,” he said.
The CM expressed satisfaction over the presence of former Trinamool councillors at the civic headquarters. “I am happy that they responded to an appeal made by the administrator. Hope they will continue to stand by KMC officials to serve the citizens till an elected board takes charge in Dec,” he said.
Till a new board takes over, the CM said, MLAs will look after citizens’ “daily needs”, not councillors. Apart from Hakim, former councillors Mala Roy and Sandipan Saha were at the event titled “Welcome to Cleanliness”.