TMC strongman Firhad Hakim to continue as Kolkata Mayor

Banerjee has named Atin Ghosh as Deputy Mayor and senior councillor Mala Roy as Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) chairperson, two days after the TMC swept the civic polls in the city.

Debashish Kumar, Debabrata Majumdar, Tarak Singh, Swapan Sammadar, Babu Bakshi, Amiruddin Bobby, Mitali Banerjee, Sandipan Saha, Abhijit Mukherjee, Baiswanor Chatterjee, Ram Pyare Ram, Jiban Saha have been picked as the Mayor-in-Council members.

The decision was taken after Banerjee met the newly elected TMC councillors at Maharashtra Niwas in the afternoon.

Hakim, who won for the fifth time as a councillor candidate, assumed the charge in 2018 after his predecessor Sovan Chatterjee, who was also from the TMC, quit following the top brass' command.

Hakim is credited for tackling cyclone Amphan, COVID-19 crisis besides starting a talk show 'Talk To Mayor' where he used to directly interact with the city dwellers every Saturday.

In the Sunday polls which were marred by sporadic violence, the TMC won 134 out of 144 wards amid the rigging allegations levelled by the all opposition parties.

Surprisingly, the Left, which was routed a few months ago in the assembly polls, pipped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to emerge as the distant but prime challenger to the TMC with around 12 percent votes.

In seatwise, the Left managed to win two, one less than the BJP.