Pranab Mukherjee's son scrapes through in Lok Sabha by-poll
Saturday October 13, 2012 07:40:50 PM,
IANS
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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.
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