It's 3 all for TMC & BJP in S Dinajpur

BALURGHAT: Both, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP have bagged 3 seats each in South Dinajpur district in recently-concluded the state Assembly election. While TMC has won Kumarganj, Harirampur and Kushmandi seats, BJP has managed to bag the remaining three seats of Balurghat, Gangarampur and Tapan in the district. In 2016 Assembly polls, TMC had won only from Kumarganj and Tapan.

In Kumarganj, Harirampur and Kushmandi, TMC candidates Toraf Hossain Mondal, Biplab Mitra and Rekha Roy bagged the seats by defeating BJP's Manas Sarkar, Nilanjan Roy and Ranjit Kumar Roy by 29,039, 22,671 and 12,536 votes respectively.

In Balurghat, Gangarampur and Tapan, BJP candidates Ashok Kumar Lahiri, Satyendranath Roy and Budhrai Tudu managed to bag the seats by defeating TMC's Sekhar Das Gupta, Goutam Das and Kalpana Kisku by 13,436, 4,280 and 1,280 votes respectively.

Both the parties faced a neck-and-neck contest in the district, which had gone to poll on April 26.

Visibly overwhelmed, TMC's winning candidate from Kumarganj, Toraf Hossain Mondal said: "People have rejected BJP's divisive politics and that is why we have won three seats in the district. The voters in the region have also rejected the saffron leaders' ugly criticism of our party supremo. Thanks to the people because without their support and cooperation, this victory could not have been possible."