Trinamool wins one LS, one assembly seat in Bengal

West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday steamrolled the opposition to retain the Tamluk Lok Sabha and Monteshwar assembly seats by huge margins.

The Trnamool also established a massive lead in the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha by-election and was set for an impressive win, officials said. Polling in all three places took place on Saturday.

The BJP emerged as a surprise package by moving up to the second place in Cooch Behar and increasing its vote tally in the other two constituencies.

In Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, Trinamool' Dibyendu Adhikari trounced his nearest rival Mandira Panda of CPI-M by over 4.97 lakh votes.

Panda bagged around 2.82 lakh votes while BJP's Ambuj Mohanti got over 1.96 lakh votes.

The Trinamool secured a massive victory in Monteshwar assembly seat in Burdwan district, its candidate Saikat Panja humbling his nearest rival, CPI-M's Md Osman Goni, by 1.27 lakh plus votes.

The result astounded pollsters as the Trinamool had won the seat by a razor thin margin of 706 votes over the CPI-M in the assembly elections held earlier this year.

The Left Front and the Congress had then been allies. Goni and all other vanquished candidates forfeited their security deposit.

BJP candidate Biswajit Poddar finished third after a neck-and-neck race with the CPI-M for the second position.

Trinamool nominee Partha Pratim Roy took a lead of around 3.34 lakh votes after 13 rounds of counting in Cooch Behar.

BJP's Hem Chandra Burman was in the second place, much ahead of Left Front partner All India Forward Bloc's Nripendranath Roy.

The Cooch Behar seat fell vacant after the death of Trinamool's Renuka Sinha while Tamluk went to the hustings as incumbent MP Suvendu Adhikari became a minister in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's cabinet.

Trinamool lawmaker Sajal Panja's death caused the Monteshwar assembly by-poll.

--IANS

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