By IANS,
Kolkata : External Affairs Minister and senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee Sunday welcomed the electoral victory of the Trinamool Congress in Bishnupur (West) assembly by-election.
“We welcome Trinamool Congress’ win in the Bishnupur assembly by-election. The result proves that people in West Bengal do not want the anti-communist votes to be divided into two parts,” Mukherjee told a press conference at the Congress office here.
Trinamool Congress candidate Madan Mitra trounced Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) Iskandar Hossain by a whopping margin of 30,395 votes in the by-poll held Feb 26. Mitra secured 85,335 votes while Hossain bagged 54,940.
Eighty-two percent of the voters exercised their franchise in the by-election.
With the Congress withdrawing its candidate in favour of the Trinamool, the verdict is also likely to strengthen the clamour for an alliance in the state between the two parties for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of CPI-M’s Rathin Sarkar, who bagged the seat in the 2006 assembly polls.