ELECTION RESULT

'Friendly fight' turned fatal for Forward Bloc

 

COOCH BEHAR, May 21: The so-called 'friendly fight' between the CPI-M and the Forward Bloc in two Zilla Parishad seats of Cooch Behar turned fatal for the Forward Bloc.

 

There are 29 seats in Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad. The Forward Bloc and the CPI-M reached to an understanding in 27 seats. Even after seven round of talks they failed to take a decision over the remaining two seats – Chandamari in Cooch Behar-I block and Bhetaguri-Putimari in Dinhata-I block. At last the Forward Bloc had declared that their candidates would go for a 'friendly fight' with the CPI-M candidates in these two seats. The CPI-M too accepted it. Leaders of both parties however had announced that Left Front unity would not be violated even after the election.

 

Today, after declaration of the results it was found that CPI-M candidate Mr Parameswar Roy defeated the Forward Bloc candidate Mr Gajendra Nath Roy in Chandamari seat. In Bhetaguri-Putimari seat Ms Bharati Sarkar of the CPI-M won the seat defeating her rival Ms Manira Chisti of Forward Bloc.

 

The CPI-M bagged 19 seats, the Forward Bloc got 8 seats and the Congress and the Trinamul Congress got one seat each. In the outgoing ZP board the total number of seats was 26 and the party position was as follows : CPI-M -18, FB -7 and independent (CPI-M supported) -1.

 

Another noteworthy event of the election is the entry of the Trinamul Congress and the Congress in the ZP tier. They bagged one seat each. There was no representation of the opposition parties in the outgoing ZP board. From now on the Left Front run ZP board may have to face trouble due to the presence of opponents.

 

Mr Dilip Biswas (CPI-M) won from Tufanganj-I and he is the most probable candidate for the ZP sabhadhipati's chair.

 

Among the heavyweight persons who failed to win there is Mr Tarapada Barman (CPI-M) of Dinhata-II block. He lost the seat to Ms Shefali Barman of Trinamul Congress. Mr Mujibar Rahman of Congress defeated Forward Bloc's Mr Debnarayan Kaloar in Dinhata-I block. []

 

PHOTO : Officials busy in compiling poll results in front of a big screen at Lansdowne Hall in Cooch Behar on Wednesday. – Debashis Bhaumik