Ummid Assistant

Mumbai NGO, top experts join hands to train students for civil services exams

Welcome Guest! You are here: Home » Politics

Pranab Mukherjee's son scrapes through in Lok Sabha by-poll

Saturday October 13, 2012 07:40:50 PM, IANS

Kolkata: The Congress Saturday managed to scrape through in West Bengal's Jangipur Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant due to the elevation of Pranab Mukherjee to the post of the country's president, with his son Abhijit winning by only 2,536 votes.

While Abhijit secured 3,32,919 votes, his nearest rival Communist Party of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) Muzaffar Hussain lost in a photo finish getting 3,30,383 in the vote count Saturday.

The by-election was held Oct 10.

Pranab Mukherjee had retained the seat in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district by over 1.28 lakh votes in 2009.

The Congress votes dropped sharply to a little over 39 percent - a decrease of nearly 15 percent. The CPI-M, which got almost 39 percent, suffered a slight erosion of 1.53 percent compared to its vote share three years back.

Hussain, in fact, led in four - Jangipur, Sagardighi, Suti, Nabagram - of the seven assembly segments, but Mukherjee offset his rival's lead by doing well in Raghunathganj, Lalgola and Khargram.

The result saw a resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the remote constituency located close to the India-Bangladesh border. The party's Sudhangshu Biswas polled 85,887 votes, which was over 10 percent of the valid votes. In 2009, the BJP had managed only two percent of the votes, which went up to four percent in the assembly elections last year.

Two pro-minority parties - Welfare Party of India and Social Democratic Party of India cut into the vote share of the established parties by bagging the support of over 66,000 people - constituting nearly eight percent of the valid votes.

The Trinamool Congress had not put up a nominee with party supremo Mamata Banerjee keeping her pledge to Pranab Mukherjee that she would not oppose the candidature of his son.

Abhijit expressed happiness over his win but said the slender margin was a cause for concern.

"The margin is surely a cause of concern but I am happy at the victory. Of course our vote bank has shrunk while the BJP's has expanded. We will discuss the issue with the state and district leadership."

He accused the BJP and the two pro-minority parties of trying to facilitate the victory of the CPI-M by dividing the votes.

Congress strongman Adhir Chowdhury said the absence of Pranab Mukherjee affected the Congress vote share. "Pranab Mukherjee is a towering personality. Abhijit is relatively new. Also some people opted for some other fringe parties".

CPI-M state secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose said his party gave the Congress a run for the money. "Through their experience, people are beginning to understand that the Left are their real friends".

There were 11 candidates in the fray.

Pranab Mukherjee was elected from this constituency twice in 2004 and 2009.










 

 

Home | Top of the Page

Comments

Note: By posting your comments here you agree to the terms and conditions of www.ummid.com

Comments powered by DISQUS

i

I

More Headlines

New IT policy latest bone of political contention

Indian healthcare firm offers tablet to treat low sugar

Trinamool MP blames own party leaders for rapes in Bengal

Shinde discusses measures for zero infiltration into Kashmir

College student gangraped in Bengal, one held

Dubai to build its own Taj Mahal

Sikh-American body raises $250,000 for education in Punjab

Obama's wedding ring inscribed with 'Allah'?

'Few lessons learnt from 1962 war'

Ten burnt alive in Agra fire

Don't sit over verdicts on personal liberty, SC tells high courts

Louise Khurshid files defamation case against TV Today group

Bihar: Angry protesters clash with police; torch collectorate, SDM office

 

Top Stories

Violence in Bihar town escalates; protesters this time torch police station

A day after two youths were killed and over a dozen people injured in a police firing, rampaging protesters in Bihar's district headquarter town of Madhubani Saturday torched the block office building, a police station  »

Bihar: Angry protesters clash with police; torch collectorate, SDM office

 

  Most Read

Shinde discusses measures for zero infiltration into Kashmir

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, at a unified headquarters meeting here Saturday, discussed measures to strengthen the fencing on the Line of Control (LoC) to ensure  »

College student gangraped in Bengal, one held

A first year polytechnic college student was gangraped in West Bengal's Burdwan district and an accused arrested, police said Saturday. The student of Rupnarayanpur Nazrul Centenary Polytechnic  »

Trinamool MP blames own party leaders for rapes in Bengal

 

  News Pick

Sikh-American body raises $250,000 for education in Punjab

A Sikh-American community organisation has raised over $250,000 to fund scholarships for needy students striving to acquire higher professional education in Punjab and neighbouring Indian states. The funds were raised at an event in Vienna, Virginia, a Washington suburb  »

Dubai to build its own Taj Mahal

The UAE emirate of Dubai plans to build its own Taj Mahal at a cost of $1 billion. Taj Arabia will be about four times the size of the original monument in India, the Gulf News quoted the developers as saying last week.The billion dollar project  »

PM for maintaining fine balance between RTI, privacy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday called for fine balance between right to information and right to privacy, an issue that cropped up after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi sought details of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's foreign travel bills, which include those for health reasons  »

Obama's wedding ring inscribed with 'Allah'?

Only three weeks away from the U.S. Presidential Elections facing off a tie between the two parties, new photographs of President Barack Obama’s wedding band have been published online, claiming the ring to have the  »

 

Picture of the Day

President Pranab Mukherjee presenting a degree to a student at the 8th Convocation of King George's Medical University, at Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh on October 12, 2012.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

RSS  |  Contact us

 

| Quick links

News

 

Subscribe to

Ummid Assistant

 

National

Science & Technology

RSS

Scholarships

About us

International

Health

Twitter

Government Schemes

Feedback

Regional

History

Facebook

Education

Register

Politics

Opinion

Newsletter

Contact us

Business

Career

Education

     

 

 

Ummid.com: Disclaimer | Terms of Use | Advertise with us | Link Exchange

Ummid.com is part of the Awaz Multimedia & Publications providing World News, News Analysis and Feature Articles on Education, Health. Politics, Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Industry etc. The articles or the views displayed on this website are for public information and in no way describe the editorial views. The users are entitled to use this site subject to the terms and conditions mentioned.

© 2012 Awaz Multimedia & Publications. All rights reserved.