Trinamool retains Kolkata South by record margin

In another setback to the Left in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress on Sunday won the by-election to the prestigious Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2,30,099 votes over Communist Party of India-Marxist, emerging victorious from the constituency for the seventh consecutive time.

Trinamool Congress candidate Subroto Bakshi, minister for public works department and transport, polled 5,16,761 votes while his nearest rival Ritobroto Banerjee of CPI-M got 2,86,662 votes.

The victory margin of Bakshi, also state Trinamool Congress president, one of the trusted lieutenants of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, surpassed the party supremo's 2009 winning figure of 2,19,571 votes and is the highest since the Kolkata South seat came into being in 1967.

The previous highest margin was held by Mamata Banerjee when she won the seat by 2,24,081 votes in 1998 after she broke away from Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress.

With this victory, Trinamool Congress, the second largest ally in the UPA, gets back to holding 19 seats in the Lok Sabha, the figure it earlier had before Mamata Banerjee vacated the seat following her election to the assembly.

The constituency saw a direct contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress and CPI-M when it was held on November 30.

There were three Independents in the fray in the constituency, which has an electorate of 15 lakh, but the BJP and Trinamool's ally Congress did not put up candidates.

Bakshi has been one of the loyal lieutenants of Banerjee since the early 1990s. The constituency, considered a pocket borough of Trinamool Congress, has sent Banerjee to the Lok Sabha six times in a row since 1991.

In the 2004 general elections, this was the only constituency where Trinamool Congress had registered its lone victory.