Mamata sweeps Bengal with 34, Left routed
17 May 2014 1:06 AM GMT
The ruling Trinamool Congress sweeped the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal by triumphing in 34 seats even as the BJP signalled its rise as a force with 2 seats while the CPI-M led Left Front was virtually routed, winning a meagre two seats.
Of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Trinamool candidates led by Mamata Banerjee delivered a sterling performance in the state, bettering the 19 seat tally of the party in 2009. Said Banerjee on her Facebook timeline, ‘I dedicate the victory of the Trinamool Congress to the people of the state. I extend my sincere thanks for their overwhelming support against all odds, money power, distortion of facts, vilification, divide and rule approach and many, many more adversities’.
The Congress won in four and the Bharatiya Janata Party in two seats. The Communist Party of India-Marxist, the major partner in the Left Front which ruled the state for 34 long years without a break till 2011, bagged only two seats.
In the previous Lok Sabha polls in 2009, while the Trinamool led alliance pocketed 26 seats, the Left Front had won 15 seats, with the CPI-M securing nine.
The BJP’s best performance so far was in 1999, when it bagged two seats – but in alliance with the Trinamool. This time, BJP had fought all the 42 seats in the state on its own. So long, the BJP’s vote percentage of 12 was the highest in the state, but this time it ended with five per cent more. ‘We are not worried at all about the BJP.
The CPI-M engineered these votes for the BJP hoping that the TMC would lose out on voting percentage but its strategy didnt work’, said re-elected Kanthi TMC MP, Sisir Adhikari.
Bollywood singer and BJP candidate Babul Supriyo won in Asansol while his party colleague S S Ahluwalia has left behind his opponents including former Indian soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia of Trinamool. Another BJP candidate Birendra Bara (Oraon) was leading in Alipurduar.
Among the Trinamool candidates who won are former railways minister Dinesh Trivedi (Barrackpore), party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee (Diamond Harbour), state party chief Subrata Bakshi (Kolkata South), former union minister Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Kolkata North), Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grand nephew and Harvard professor Sugata Bose (Jadavpur), and former union minister Sougata Roy (Dum Dum).
Celebrity nominees of Trinamool, who won are actress Sandhya Roy (Medinipur), actor Tapas Pal (Krishnanagar), Satabdi Roy (Birbhum), and Arjuna awardee former Indian soccer captain Prasun Mukherjee (Howrah).Top Tollywood star Dev also won the polls.
Amid an all-round dismal show, CPI-M central committee member Md. Salim won. But the Left Front, led by the CPM, was actually staring at a rout in West Bengal on Friday.
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