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Home | Top Story | Left Front on Friday stormed back to power for the fourth consecutive time in Tripura

Left Front on Friday stormed back to power for the fourth consecutive time in Tripura

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SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

07 March, 2008 09:22:00

Inflicting a crushing blow on its opponents, the Left Front on Friday stormed back to power for the fourth consecutive time in Tripura securing a three-fourths majority in the 60-member assembly

Inflicting a crushing blow on its opponents, the Left Front on Friday stormed back to power for the fourth consecutive time in Tripura securing a three-fourths majority in the 60-member assembly. With all the results pouring in, the CPI-M, the dominant partner, gained this majority on its own bagging 46 seats while its allies RSP pocketed two seats and the CPI one.

The opposition Congress was routed winning only 10 seats and its partner Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) had to remain content with a single seat. INTP`s consolation victory came when its president Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhwal scraped through by 115 votes in Hrishyamukh constituency.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar (CPI-M) romped home from Dhanpur constituency defeating his nearest rival by 2,900 votes. In Kolkata, West Bengal CPI-M secretary Biman Bose, hailing the Left Front`s landslide victory, said the verdict was a lesson to the Congress for "trying to divide tribals and non-tribals". Prominent front winners were Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury (CPI-M) who retained the Hrishyamukh seat by a margin of 7761 votes and Labour Minister Faizur Rahman who won from Kurti.

Other CPI-M winners included Bijita Nath (Kadamtala seat), Amitava Dutta (Dharmanagar), Samir Deb Sarkar (Khowai) and Daniel Jamatia (Ampinagar). RSP`s Joygobinda Deb Roy retained the Radhakishorepur seat defeating Congress` Pranjit Singh Roy by 312 votes. The RSP's Joygobinda Deb Roy retained the Radhakishorepur seat defeating Congress' Pranjit Singharoy by 312 votes.

The Left Front had captured power in 1993 and had also won the two subsequent elections in 1998 and 2003. In the previous elections, the Front had won 41 seats. In the current elections, one of its allies the Forward Bloc had broken away following differences on seat sharing. The CPI (M) workers started celebrating at the headquarters as the news of the party doing good at the hustings began coming in. The workers distributed sweets and rejoiced over their sweep in Tripura.

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