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Trinamul takes a beating in WB by-polls

Zakia Maryam in Calcutta

The Trinamul Congress today suffered major setbacks in the assembly by-elections to three seats in West Bengal, with its candidates being mauled by the Communist Party if India-Marxist and nominees backed by the Congress.

Of the three seats that went to the polls on February 17, Seuri and Navagram went to the CPI-M and Binpur (ST) to the Jharkhand Party (Naren).

In Seuri in Birbhum district, CPI-M nominee Brojo Mukherjee defeated his nearest rival, Suniti Chattoraj of the Trinamul Congress, by a margin of 18,000 votes. Chattoraj, a former Congress leader who recently switched loyalties, was the Trinamul's candidate from Bolpur in last year's parliamentary polls. He had then lost to Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI-M.

In Behrampur's Navagram assembly constituency, the party candidate, Nripen Chowdhury, won by a little over 8,000 votes. By-elections were conducted here after the Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury vacated this seat soon after his election to the Lok Sabha last year.

Though Binpur in Midnapur district is considered its stronghold, the Trinamul could make no headway, coming in third after JKP (Naren) nominee Chunibala Hansda and Dibakar Hansda of the CPI-M. Chunibala Hansda beat Dibakar Hansda by over 12,000 votes. The seat had fallen vacant when Naren Hansda, the then MLA of this constituency, had died.

Visibly happy with the results, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu told rediff.com that they were as expected.

"I am extremely happy with the results. We lost in Binpur because the man there had died and his wife got sympathy votes."

With the Left winning in Binpur, the Trinamul's claims of invincibility in south Bengal were exposed. To date, this is the area that the party has done best; it is yet to make inroads in the north, the Left's fiefdom. With the assembly elections due next year, Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee now has a lot of work to do to recover lost ground.

Assembly Election 2000

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