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Congress fares well in by-elections

The Congress won in Kerala, Assam and the sole Lok Sabha seat in UP. In West Bengal, Congress' ally, Trinamool Congress, swept the polls
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi Hardnews

The Trinamool Congress put up a good show in the recently concluded by-elections in West Bengal winning eight out of ten assembly seats. The Left Front could only manage to win in Goalpokhor where Forward Bloc's trounced Congress.

"There is a strong wave of resentment against the CPI-M which is responsible for such a poor show. It's clear that winds of change are sweeping through West Bengal. The people's desire for a change of guard is gaining momentum and the result of the by-elections and several elections since the Lok Sabha have only proved that," an analyst from West Bengal told Hardnews.

The ruling CPI-M is drawing flak in the state. They have been criticised for not taking the Naxal threat seriously. After Singur and Nandigram, they have been blamed for espousing anti-people policies and siding with corporate predators. CPI-M even lost Belgachia (east), a seat from where Subhas Chakraborty had won in each election since 1977. The seat fell vacant after his death this year. His wife, Ramola Chakraborty, was the CPI-M candidate but lost out to Trinamool's Sujit Bose, former aide of Subhas Chakraborty.

Interestingly, Trinamool opened its account in North Bengal by winning the Rajganj seat in Jalpaiguri district, a CPI-M stronghold. Trinamool chief, Mamata Banerjee, overwhelmed by the performance of her party termed it as a victory of Maa Maati Maanush.

Meanwhile, in UP it wasn't too bad for the Congress. Raj Babbar, who left the SP to join Congress, defeated Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, to win the Firozabad parliamentary constituency. Babbar, who is now being termed as a traitor by the SP, won by a margin of more than 85,000 votes. This, analysts believe, has widened the rift between the SP and the Congress. There are rumours that it might provoke the SP to withdraw its support to the UPA government at the Centre.

In Lucknow West assembly seat, a BJP stronghold for over two decades, the Congress won. This is another indication that the Congress is benefiting from the erosion of the upper caste votebank of the BJP.

Meanwhile, the debacle of the SP in UP doesn't stop here. It fared poorly in the assembly seats, too. The SP lost in Mulayam's hometown, Etawah, considered a citadel of the SP. Here, Mahendra Singh Rajput of the BSP defeated Vimal Bhadauria of the SP by a margin of 32,868 votes. Even in Barthana, a seat held by Mulayam, the BSP's Shiv Prasad Yadav won by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

In Kerala, the Congress won all the three seats. In Assam, the Congress won two seats and also the only seat in Chhattisgarh where by-elections were held.