People's Democracy

SUFFUSING the Left Front supporters and activists statewide with tumultuous exuberance, the Left Front’s candidate Subodh Nath trounced his nearest Congress(I) rival by a big margin in Kadamtala by-election in North Tripura. Right from the start of the counting, Nath maintained a steady lead till he was finally declared elected.

The constituency went to bypoll due to the CPI(M) legislator Umesh Nath’s demise.

Thousands of Left Front supporters, who had thronged in front of the counting centre at Dharmanagar with red flags, took our a victory procession through the town as soon as the result was declared.

The result was eagerly awaited by people across the state. Out of the six candidates in the fray, four lost their deposits. The CPI(M) nominee defeated the Congress candidate by a margin of 2,555 votes, polling 9,868 votes, or 49.28 per cent of the total votes polled. This was up from 42.56 per cent (6,712 votes) in the 1998 assembly polls.

Coming close on the heels of the massive mandate the Left Front got in Agartala municipal council and all nagar panchayats in the state in the civic polls last December, this by-election victory is a tremendous boost for the Left Front activists and supporters all over the state.

Congress leaders made use of several tactics to win this election. All the Congress heavyweights in the state as also their mentor, Santosh Mohan Deb, camped in the constituency for days together. On the day of poll, February 19, Congress legislators attempted to influence the voters by seeking to illegally transport them in vehicles, in violation of the Election Commission’s guidelines. When the CPI(M)’s election agent and its divisional committee secretary, Abhijit Day, and several party activists went to the additional police superintendent to lodge a complaint in this regard, they were severely beaten up by a section of the police and are under treatment at Silchar Medical College, Assam.

In separate statements, the Left Front, chief minister Manik Sarkar and CPI(M)’s Dharmanagar divisional committee hailed the voters for electing the Left Front nominee. The state Left Front committee viewed this verdict by Kadamtala voters as a fitting reply to the malicious misinformation campaign run by vested interests against the Left Front. The statement recalled these vested interests’ endeavour to forge a so-called super alliance. Unofficial organs of the anti-Left Front parties tried to mislead the voters with innumerable slanders against the front. The drastic downturn of the BJP’s vote percentage in this bypoll as well as the Trinamul Congress’ non-participation in it, betrayed a covert compromise of the Congress with these two parties. But an alert electorate foiled all this game, the Left Front said.

The CPI(M) divisional committee viewed the electoral rout of the corrupt Congress and the communal BJP in Kadamtala bypoll as a shot in the arm of the Left, democratic and secular forces in the country. Chief minister Manik Sarkar said the victory at the same time added to the Left Front’s responsibility to press ahead with its pro-people policies, with people’s cooperation as its sole resource. (INN)