With the panchayat elections knocking at the door and the word spreading in political circles that the Congress is losing ground due to its close ties with the ruling CPM, the thumping victory may be a turnaround for the Congress. The party retained the seat with a margin of 10,400 votes by defeating its nearest rival, the CPM.

The results might be shocking for the main Opposition in the state, the Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee’s candidate lost his security deposit as he could secure less than three per cent of the votes polled.

Interestingly, the BJP fared better than the TMC.

For the Congress as well as for its WBPCC president it was an acid test since it was the first time Dasmunsi campaigned for a Congress candidate in West Bengal without having the charisma of the late Ghani Khan Choudhury.

“All credit goes to Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi,” said Rubi Noor, Congress MLA and sister of Ghani Khan Choudhury. “The victory proves that the Congress and CPM are not friends in West Bengal, whatever may be the picture in Delhi. This will help us in the upcoming panchayat elections,” Noor added.

Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, alleged that the CPM paved the way for the Congress victory. Speaking at a rally in Kolkata, she said: “This is the victory of communalism, money and muscle power. It once again proves that the CPM and Congress are hand in hand. It was decided that CPM will hand over the seat to the Congress on a platter.”

CPM district secretary Jiban Maitra agreed with Banerjee’s money power theory.

“Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi used his money power to win the election. We did not do badly ourselves. This is a Congress bastion and we worked hard to split Opposition votes in our favour. But the voters did not respond,” said Maitra.

CPM sources said that the election once again proved that panchayat polls in Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur would not be an easy task for the ruling Left Front. “ Congress already has Malda and Murshidabad. Our assessment says that in North Dinajpur the Congress will do better in rural polls. Kharba result is a pointer in that direction,” said a senior CPM leader.

In the Kharba by-elections, which took place after the death of the Congress MLA Mahbubul Haq, Dasmunsi had to deal with a split within his own party as a chunk of the party’s supporters under the Congress district general secretary Muhammed Shahid had left the party just before the polls and campaigned against his candidate Asif Mehbub.