ELECTION

Pranab, Mamata's joint meet a morale booster

COOCH BEHAR, April 20: The joint visit of Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Miss Mamata Banerjee to Cooch Behar on Sunday appears as a morale booster to the Congress and Trinamul Congress supporters. The two parties jointly organised the election rally that turned a mammoth one. All local senior leaders of the both parties attended the meeting with their followers. The Trinamul supremo left Cooch Behar with a belief that she may be able to bag this seat defeating the Left Front's candidate.

A state Trinamul secretary, Mr Abdul Jalil Ahmed said, "We taught the CPI-M a lesson in the last three-tier panchayat elections in this district. We snatched the two Panchayat Samitis and many Gram Panchayat seats from them in Tufanganj sub-division. In other areas too we bagged a number of seats. We made the CPI-M and others in the Left Front not to consider Cooch Behar district a red bastion any more. Now, in the Lok Sabha election we are going to make our presence felt by winning this seat. Sunday's joint meeting encouraged our activists and supporters to go ahead to pull down the 'Lal Jhandawalas' from the seat of power."

District vice-president of the party Mr Niranjan Dutta too echoed Mr Ahmed. "The Left Front would not be able to retain its seat this time. They would have to go backward because they have no ability to face the united force of the Trinamul Congress and the Congress. Sunday's huge gathering acted as a morale booster to our supporters."

District Congress vice-president Mr Dipak Neogi, district Youth Congress president Mr Avijit Dey Bhaumik, district Trinamul Youth Congress president Kumar Rajib Narayan and district Chhatra Parishad president Mr Rakesh Chaudhury too believe that there is every possibility to get the Cooch Behar seat. An AICC member Mrs Sabita Roy said, "The large gathering at the Sunday's joint meeting inspired our activists to get Mr Arghya Roy Pradhan a winner by a huge margin."