People's Democracy

LF RETAINS PARA SEAT WITH INCREASED MARGIN

B Prasant

PARA in Purulia district abutting the Bankura border registered a big win for CPI(M) and Left Front. Minati (�Minu�) Bauri from a low-wage working class family emerged victorious over her nearest combined opposition representative candidate of the divisive Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) by a margin of 40,787 votes (over 35,275 of margin polled in the last elections of 2006) increasing the CPI(M) vote percentage as well from 52.60 to 55.10). The combined votes pooled together by the opposition went down from 55,917 to 51,843. The BJP and the Trinamul-supported PDS candidates saw their deposits forfeited.

A skilful Party organiser, and a person who ran with firm efficiency the Mangalda-Moutod GP as its Gram Panchayat Pradhan, Minati Bauri is also an enthusiastic leader and organiser of the local units of the DYFI. Young men and women were expectedly in the accepted kind of celebratory mood. They shouldered up the winning candidate who had a visibly worn, Red shawl wrapped around her shoulders, and as plentiful swathes of Red gulal were thrown in the wintry air of the bright afternoon, Lal salaams and lusty victory cheers were heard �� in Santhali as well as in Bengali and Hindi.

As far as Nandigram, was concerned, Biman Basu, state secretary of the Bengal, had earlier noted that a sub-terrain terror ran through the entire constituency. He was subsequently proved correct as masses of voters were kept away from the polling stations-- through an exercise of brute might.

The Trinamuli goons took full advantage of the unfortunate fact that nearly all the gram panchayats are now, post-rural polls, under the onerous anti-social control of the Trinamul Congress.

The third seat in the fray � Sujapore in Maldah � was won by the Congress candidate. Here, the combined right-wing candidate, the daughter of the sitting MLA whose demise had brought about the present election to the seat, retained the seat for the Pradesh Congress, and thus maintained the family�s hold over the seat. Earlier, the seat had been held by the deceased MLAs� brother and one-time central government minister A B A Ghani Khan Chaudhury.