Trinamool heads for landslide victory in West Bengal

Kolkata

In the 294-member Assembly, the Left-Congress alliance did not make much of an impact despite prediction to the contrary by political pundits, as it captured 49 seats and was leading in 24 others.

The Congress, however, did better than its Left allies winning 29 seats and was leading in 15 seats. CPM bagged 18 seats and is ahead in eight.

The BJP won three seats including the victory of the state party president Dilip Ghosh.

Dilip Ghosh beat sitting Congress MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal from Kharagpur Sadar seat in West Midnapore district by 6,309 votes. Aged 91,  Sohanpal is the seniormost member of the outgoing Assembly.

In Darjeeling hills, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha won three seats. Other prominent TMC ministers who won included Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Moloy Ghatak and city mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

The ministers who lost included Manish Gupta, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury and Sabitri Mitra. Another priminent TMC leader Madan Mitra who was in jail in connection with Saradha chit fund scam, lost. CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra was defeated in Narayangarh constituency in West Midnapore.

TMC swept the metropolis here winning all the 11 seats. Nandigram constituency in East Midnapore district, where a violent anti-land acquisition movement had helped Trinamool come to power for the first time in 2011, was retained by the party.

TMC MP Suvendu Adhikari won by a heavy margin of 81,230 votes against his nearest Left Front rival Abdul Kabir Seikh.

West Bengal Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra retained his Khardaha seat by defeating CPM’s Asim Kumar Dasgupta by 21,200 votes.

Former Bengal cricket captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla won the Howrah North seat on a Trinamool ticket by defeating his nearest rival Santosh Kumar Pathak of Congress.

Mamata Banerjee, who won from Bhabanipur constituency by 25,301 votes, said that “contesting on its own TMC got twothirds majority fighting the entire opposition.” She said she would take oath on May 27.

“It is an unprecedented victory despite a joint opposition unleashing violence. I thank the people of Bengal from the bottom of my heart for keeping faith in Trinamool Congress. Banerjee said.  “People of Bengal have rejected attempts by the opposition to mislead them. The people did not like the way the opposition has spread canards against me in this election,” she added.