The CPM won 27 seats and the RSP secured five seats taking the Left Front tally to 33. The Congress, on the other hand won the remaining 31 seats.

In 2003, the Congress had won 33 out of 60 Zilla Parishad seats while the Left Front had secured 27 seats.

Dummy candidates fielded by a faction of the Congress against their official candidates helped the Left Front to capture power in the zilla parishad.

The poll outcome shows that the Congress suffered a major setback in Sagardighi, Lalgola and Raninagar II blocks where it lost eight seats due to division of votes between official Congress candidates and dummy candidates.

The Congress had clinched all these eight seats in 2003 panchayat polls. This time, the district Congress president and MP from Behrampore constituency, Adhir Chowdhury, had refused to give tickets to these eight seating Zilla Parishad members forcing them to contest the polls as Independents. These eight seats actually made the difference, said a senior district Congress leader.

According to results reaching from Murshidabad, the CPM bagged six out of 10 seats in Domkal sub-division, which had witnessed bloodshed during the last phase of panchayat polls on Sunday. In Domkal, the Congress won four seats — two less than what it secured in 2003 panchayat polls. The Left Front secured eight and five seats from Jongipur and Behrampore sub-divisions, respectively, while it clinched five and three seats from Lalbag and Kandi sub-divisions, respectively.

The Congress secured seven and five seats from Jongipur and Lalbag sub-divisions, respectively. In Behrampore, the Congress secured seven seats and another eight seats in Kandi sub-division.

Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury alleged that the CPM had bought votes and forced the administration to order re-poll in some booths.

Nripen Chowdhury, CPM district secretary, however, said people voted against the Congress for “criminalising politics” in Murshidabad.

Cong blames Trinamool
The Congress party slammed the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday for ‘ditching’ it during the panchayat polls.