From Our Correspondent
AGARTALA: The CPM registered a ‘stunning’ victory the much-campaigned Nalchar byelection considered semi-final before the 2013 Assembly elections.
CPM candidate Tapan Kumar Das defeated his arch rival Congress candidate- Dwijendra Lal Majumder by a massive margin- 4774 votes. In the last Assembly election, the CPM won the Nalchar Assembly constituency by 2500 votes.
Though four candidates from parties including CPI-M, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have contested the June 12 by-election in the Nalchar assembly seat (reserved for the scheduled caste people), the main contest was between the CPI-M’s Tapan Chandra Das and the Congress’ Dwijendralal Majumder.
With Friday’s win, the Nalchar assembly constituency has won seven times by the CPI-M and two times by the Congress since Tripura became a full-fledged state in February 1972.
This time, the ruling party not only retained the SC reserved seat but also increase the vote share from 52.13 to 56.13 percent. Both BJP and Amara Bengali could not make any impact in the electoral battle as they got 463 and 385 votes respectively.
The outcome of byelection, political analysts say important and strategic keeping in the light of CPM’s downfall in Kerala and West Bengal in the last year. This also holds key for the ruling front before the next Assembly election slated for early next year.
Terming the win as positive and strategic, CPM state unit secretary Bijan Dhar on Friday said that the massive mandate was the reflection people’s confidence on the party. “Despite lot of conspiracy, the CPM’s victory holds important for the party to boost the Left Front government agenda for all round development”, he said. Asserting that the massive mandate in favour of the ruling front is a lesson for the Congress, Dhar said that the opposition left no stone unturned to defame the CPM during the campaign.
“The byelection outcome will defiantly boost the party morale in the next Assembly. This mandate also increases the responsibility and commitment towards the people”, he said adding that the party would respect the people’s faith on the Left Front.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesman Ratan Chakraborty said, “We accepted the verdict and will study the electoral outcome to take remedial measures”. It may be noted that the byelection witnessed a massive polling (96percent) on June 12 while it was 94 percent.
CPI-M spokesman Gautam Das reacting to the victory said: “The bypoll outcome has come as a slap for the misinformation campaign by a section of the media and Congress leaders.”
He said: “The voters of Nalchar have responded positively towards the development, success and pro-people policies of the Left Front government. The people have given a befitting reply to the anti-development and anti-people parties like Congress and their supporters.”
Political observers feel that the bypoll result, comes eight months ahead of the elections to the 60-seat assembly in the lone Left-ruled state Tripura, and is politically significant for both the ruling Left parties and the main opposition Congress.
Elections to the Tripura state assembly are scheduled in February 2013.
Top CPI-M leaders, including Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar, and senior AICC general secretary Luizinho Faleiro, Tripura Congress president Sudip Roy Barman and Leader of Opposition Ratan Lal Nath had campaigned in the bypoll to win the vital elections. (With inputs from IANS)