Left Front bags W Tripura Lok Sabha seat

AGARTALA, Feb 25 — Left Front candidate and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Khagen Das has won the West Tripura Lok Sabha bye-poll with a margin of 1.49 lakh votes over his nearest rival Congress-Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura candidate Prof Manik Deb. There were seven other candidates in the fray, including Trinamul Congress and Nationalist Congress Party and all of them forfeited their security. The most humiliating defeat was for former Chief Minister and Trinamul Congress chairman Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar who begged unexpectedly low votes.

The results of all the 30 Assembly segments that come under the West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency were declared late last night. While Left Front candidate Khagen Das got 3,91,975 votes in his kitty, Congress-INPT candidate Prof Manik Deb got 243,161 votes. Sudhir Ranjan got only 34,243 votes. Margin between Das and Deb stands at 1,48,814 votes. The bye-election was held on February 21. The seat had fallen vacant following death of sitting CPM MP Samar Choudhury in September last.