Trinamool retains Krishnaganj, leads in Bongaon

Kolkata, Feb 16 (IANS) West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress Monday retained the Krishnaganj assembly seat and established a substantial lead in the Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency where bypolls were held last week.

The BJP was in the second position in both the constituencies, pushing the CPI-M headed Left Front to the third spot. Congress seemed to be running a poor fourth.

In Bongaon, Trinamool candidate Mamatabala Thakur was ahead of her nearest rival Subrata Thakur of the BJP by over 1 lakh votes after the tenth round of counting. Thakur was leading in all seven assembly segments of the primarily rural constituency comprising parts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts.

CPI-M nominee and former state minister Debesh Das, who had finished runners up in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, lagged behind the BJP from the start of the vote count while Congress candidate Kuntal Mondal could forfeit his deposit.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Trinamool MP Kapil Krishna Thakur. Mamatabala is his widow, and Subrata his nephew.

In Krishnaganj in Nadia district, Trinamool candidate Satyajit Biswas won by a margin of over 37,000 votes against his closest rival Manabendra Roy of the BJP.

The Trinamool retained its vote share of last year's Lok Sabha polls from the assembly segment while the Bharatiya Janata Party's vote almost doubled.

CPI-M's Apurba Biswas secured far lesser votes this time in the area as compared to last year.

Congress candidate Nityagopal Mondal lost his deposit.

The seat fell vacant due to the death of Trinamool lawmaker Sushil Biswas.

Over 80 percent voters cast their franchise Feb 13 in the two seats, reserved for scheduled caste candidates.