AGARTALA, June 15 � The ruling CPM won the Nalchar by-election by a huge margin of 4,774 votes sending a clear message that it is still a formidable force in Tripura despite party�s downfall in West Bengal and Kerala � once considered as Left bastion.
The victory was termed by the ruling party as massive, positive and strategic keeping in mind the next year�s Assembly elections.
While CPM nominee Tapan Chandra Das secured 18,001 votes, his rival Congress candidate Dwijendra Lal Mazumder got 13,224, according to result declared by the Returning Officer on Friday. The BJP and Amra Bangali bagged 463 and 385 votes in the by-election and lost their security deposits.
The ruling party also enhanced the wining margin from 2,550 votes in 2008 to 4,474 in 2012 even as Congress also increased its vote share by 1,008.
Bijan Dhar, the CPM State unit secretary congratulated the voters for keeping faith on the Left Front�s strive for all round development of the State.
�It is a massive, positive and strategic win for the Left Front as people rejected the opposition party�s baseless campaign against the ruling front�, he said at a press conference here.
Dhar said that the Nalchar verdict is an endorsement of the Left Front Government�s continuous strive for development and special effort for upliftment of down-trodden people. The CPM State secretary said that the verdict would certainly have a positive impact in the 2013 Assembly elections.
Dhar hit out at the Congress saying �The Congress should take a lesson from the mistake that was committed by its leaders by spearheading false charges against the Left Front Government�.
A record 96 per cent polling was recorded in the by-poll held amid tight security on June 12. The Election Commission had engaged four Observers to supervise the entire election process.
