Balagarh: Trinamool eating into CPM vote bank?

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Bidyut Roy

Posted online: Thursday , January 03, 2008 at 12:00:00
Updated: Thursday , January 03, 2008 at 01:06:21

Kolkata, January 2 The CPM has retained the Balagarh assembly seat, winning the by-election by 8,410 votes, but not before shock waves from the land acquisition issue severely eroded its vote bank.

In the 2006 Assembly polls, the CPM had won the seat with a margin of 17,965 votes. Balagarh in Hooghly district has been with the party for the last 30 years. The biggest gainer was Trinamool, which got 51,691 votes despite going it alone this time, against its haul of 51,662 in 2006 when it contested the elections in alliance with the BJP.

On face of it, the CPM seemed to have lost votes to BJP, which got 8,833 votes this time. But a closer look shows that the BJP has been getting similar figures in earlier elections at Balagarh since 1996 — even when it had no alliance with the Trinamool.

The Nandigram shock wave was also felt by the Congress. Its candidate polled only 5,864 votes, barely managing to stay ahead of CPI-ML to secure the fourth place.

While a victory for the CPM was a fait accompli, the party had not expected such a severe erosion of its vote bank, which political circles are attributing to Nandigram.

Asked why the CPM had lost votes, CPM state secretary Biman Bose was not pleased. “I have a right not to reply to all questions,” he told the reporters who had cornered him at a cultural fair this evening.

The TMC was jubilant even in defeat. Mamata Banerjee said: “The result shows that we are the alternative” to the CPM. Her contention: The people are yet to rally behind the Congress or even the BJP in West Bengal.

The Congress, which has been putting pressure on Mamata to quit the BJP-led NDA, claimed that the BJP tally indicates the rise of “communal” forces. “The TMC should decide now to stop the advance of communal forces in Bengal,” said Manas Bhuniya, leader of Congress Legislature Party. However, Union information and broadcasting minister and Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said Balagarh shows the organisational failure of the Congress.

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