By IANS,
Kolkata: Amid the euphoria over the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance mauling West Bengal’s ruling Left Front in the general elections, one victorious Congress candidate has struck a discordant note. A day after her victory from Raiganj in North Dinajpur district, Deepa Dasmunsi Sunday alleged a section of Trinamool workers in her constituency had campaigned for an independent candidate.
Deepa Dasmunsi, wife of ailing Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, said the majority of Trinamool leaders had shifted to Balurghat constituency in neighbouring South Dinajpur constituency during the campaign to work for their party candidate.
“The votes that we got were virtually all Congress votes. We won by people’s votes,” said Deepa Dasmunsi, who does not see eye-to-eye with Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee.
“The majority of Trinamool leaders in Raiganj had left for Balurghat. Only some grassroots level workers of Trinamool campaigned for me. But the leaders were not there with me. Some of them even campaigned for (independent candidate) Abdul Karim Chowdhury,” she said.
Karim, a former Trinamool legislator from Islampur under Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency, had resigned from his party days before the nomination process began and joined the electoral race as an independent.
This had led to intense speculation that Banerjee had backed Karim to scuttle Deepa Dasmunsi’s chances.
Deepa Dasmunsi had earned Banerjee’s wrath after she demanded that the Trinamool chief apologise for her disparaging remarks about top Congress leaders from the state like Pranab Mukherjee.
Deepa Dasmunsi, who won by a margin of over 105,000 votes, added: “Not only the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) but also a section of Trinamool Congress workers and SUCI (Socialist Unity Centre of India) worked against me.”
The SUCI is an alliance partner of the Trinamool but contested against Congress candidates in nine constituencies and won one.
Of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Trinamool got 19 and the Congress six to take the alliance’s tally to 26. The Left Front won 15 – its worst performance since coming to power in West Bengal in 1977 – and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) one.