Trinamool-Congress combine steals show at West Bengal polls

Kolkata: A resurgent Trinamool Congress-Congress combine on Tuesday swept the West Bengal assembly by-elections winning eight of the 10 seats, dealing a blow to the beleaguered ruling Left Front that could bag only one seat. An independent took the tenth seat.

Although the November 3 by-elections were mainly held in areas considered opposition citadels, the Left was desperate for a good showing since the next assembly elections are due in 2011.

Despite contesting separately, the Congress and the Trinamool won seven of the ten constituencies in 2006. The Left Front had won three.

Continuing with its electoral victories since the Lok Sabha sweep of May, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool bagged all the seven seats it contested, retaining five and wresting Belgachia East and Rajganj from its arch rival Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the vote count yesterday.

The Congress, which was in the fray in three constituencies, finished with one seat.

It retained its traditional stronghold Sujapur in Malda district but conceded the prized Goalpokhar seat in North Dinajpur district to the Forward Bloc, a Left Front ally.

It was the only success for the Left Front, which was defeated in all the other nine seats.

The Kalchini seat in north Bengal's Jalpaiguri went to an independent. And, in a clear sign of the hard times to follow, the CPI-M drew a blank despite pitting candidates in five constituencies.

Trinamool candidates were re-elected from Bongaon, Serampore, Alipore, Contai South and Egra.

The victor in Sujapur was late Congress leader A.B. Gani Khan Chowdhury's brother Abu Nasser Khan Chowdhury. He won by 29,479 votes. In a startling result, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha-backed independent Wilson Champamari won from Kalichini in north Bengal's Jalpaiguri district. The Adivasi Vikas Parishad nominee finished second, leaving the more established political parties far behind.

Left Front partner Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) finished third and the Congress fourth in the seat, which comprises a large number of tea gardens in the foothills of the Darjeeling Himalayas known as the Dooars.

In Alipore, Trinamool's Bobby Hakim trounced his nearest rival Kuastav Chatterjee of the CPI-M by 27,555 votes. The seat, a Trinamool stronghold, falls in Banerjee's Kolkata South parliamentary constituency.

Trinamool's triumph in Belgachia (East) on Kolkata's outskirts was a big triumph for the party and a severe heartbreak for the Left as it had elected popular CPI-M leader Subhas Chakraborty seven times since 1977.

Chakraborty died earlier this year, and the CPI-M tried to cash in on a perceived sympathy wave by nominating Chakraborty's widow Ramala against Trinamool leader Sujit Bose.

In the end, the move boomeranged, and Bose sailed home with a massive 28,360 margin, which was more than the lead taken by Chakraborty in any of the elections.

Winners and Losers

India's ruling Congress and its ally Trinamool Congress as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) yesterday scored huge wins in by-elections across seven states, dealing major blows to the Left, the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Congress, which dramatically won the Lok Sabha battle this May, humbled the Samajwadi Party in the Firozabad parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh where its nominee Raj Babbar worsted Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, by over 85,000 votes. The actor-turned-politician's victory took the Congress strength in the 545-seat Lok Sabha to 207.

And in a clear signal that the political ground was shifting in Uttar Pradesh, candidates of the Congress, which has been out of power in the country's most populous state for two long decades, finished second in three of the 11 assembly seats that went to the polls on Saturday.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's BSP, which finished a poor third in the last Lok Sabha election, bagged as many as nine seats. The Congress and an independent won one seat each. The Samajwadi Party and the BJP drew a humiliating blank.