In another setback to the Left in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress today won the by-election to the prestigious Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2,30,099 votes over CPI(M).
Trinamool Congress candidate Subroto Bakshi, Minister for PWD and Transport, polled 5,16,761 votes while his nearest rival Ritobroto Banerjee of CPI(M) got 2,86,662 votes.
The victory margin of Mr. Bakshi, also state Trinamool Congress president, one of the trusted lieutenants of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, surpassed the party supremo’s 2009 winning figure of 2,19,571 votes and is the highest since the Kolkata South seat came into being in 1967.
The previous highest margin was held by Mamata Banerjee when she won the seat by 2,24,081 votes in 1998 after she broke away from Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress.
With this victory, the strength of Trinamool Congress, the second largest ally in the UPA-II, goes to 19 seats in the Lok Sabha. Ms. Banerjee had vacated the seat following her election to the Assembly.
The constituency saw a direct contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) when it was held on November 30.
There were three Independents in the fray in the constituency, which has an electorate of 15 lakh, but the BJP and Trinamool's ally Congress did not put up candidates.
Mr. Bakshi has been one of the loyal lieutenants of Ms. Banerjee since the early 1990s.
The constituency has sent Ms. Banerjee to the Lok Sabha six times in a row since 1991. She had won from the seat also in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009. In 1991 and 1996, she had won as a Congress candidate.
In the 2004 general elections, this was the only constituency where Trinamool Congress had registered its lone victory.
