Tripura votes for Left, Meghalaya looks at hung assembly

Agartala/Shillong, Mar 7 (UNI) The Left Front today stormed to power in Tripura for the fourth consecutive time while Meghalaya is set to get a coalition government with the ruling Congress garnering 25 of the 59 seats to emerge as the single largest party.

Manik Sarkar's political acumen and clean image paid off as he appeared all set to become the Chief Minister of Tripura for the third time in a row. The Left Front swept the polls attaining a two-thirds majority winning 49 seats in the 60-member assembly.

Mr Sarkar won from the Dhanpur constituency by a margin of 2918 votes defeating Saha Alam of Congress as the red brigade stormed to power in Tripura. The CPI(M)-led Left Front had earlier won the assembly polls in 1993, 1998 and 2003.

Badal Chowdhury, a veteran CPI(M) leader and Finance Minister, won from the Hrishyamukh constituency for the fourth term defeating his Congress rival Dilip Chowdhury by a whopping 7761 votes in Tripura.

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