Trinamool Congress ensures its Opposition status in W B Assy

Kolkata, Sep 19 (UNI) Retaining their strongholds, the ruling Left Front and opposition Congress in West Bengal today won bypolls in two and one Lok Sabha constituencies respectively, while the Trinamool Congress clung on to the Bongaon Assembly seat to retrieve the status of Opposition in the state Assembly.

Left Front candidate Narahari Mahato of the Forward Bloc won in Purulia defeating Mr Santiram Mahato of the Congress by more than 87,000 votes while Mr Abu Ayash Mondal of the CPI (M) drubbed Trinamool Congress nominee Susanta Ghosh by a whopping 1,85,334 votes to hold the Left forte in Katwa.

Cashing in on the myth of the departed leader A.B.A.Ghani Khan Chowdhury, the Congress, however, retained its traditionbal Malda seat when party candidate Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury defeated Food Processing Minister Sailen Sarkar, his CPI (M) rival, by about 78,000 votes.

In Bongaon Assembly constituency, Mr Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress scored over his CPI (M) rival Pankaj Ghosh by more than 5,700 votes.

With this win, the Trinamool Congress ensured their status as the Opposition in the 294-member state Assembly as the party was one short of the required 30 seats.

All the four byelections were held on September 16.

For the first time in recent times, the Congress and the Trinamool forged a tacit understanding in the bypolls, though the new alignment did not spoil the fate of the ruling Front.

Katwa and Malda went to bypolls following the death of CPI (M)'s Mahboob Zahedi and Mr A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury of the Congress, while the Purulia seat fell vacant following the resignation of Forward Bloc MP Bir Singh Mahato after he was implicated in a criminal case.

The bypolls in Bongaon was necessitated following the death of Trinamool MLA Bhupen Seth, who died a few days after Assembly election results were declared in May last.

Meanwhile, Left Front Chairman Biman Bose expressed satisfaction over the bypolls results and said the percentage of vote for the party had increased by 9 and 4 per cent respectively in Katwa and Purulia.

'' We have won even though it was 1:1 fight. This proves that arithmetic do not work all the time,'' he said.

UNI KDG-AKM KK AB 1612