Islampur/Calcutta, Dec. 7: The CPM emerged victorious in the Assembly byelections in North Dinajpur’s Islampur today, prompting chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to say that people had supported the government’s initiative towards industrialisation.

“The Islampur results show that the people have supported our drive for industrialisation,” Bhattacharjee said at Writers’ Buildings.

Mamata, however, tried to make Singur an issue in her campaign in Islampur. When police fought a pitched battle with activists in Singur last Saturday, Mamata was campaigning in Islampur.

However, the result also proved once again that the chances of her success against the Leftists lie only in an alliance with the Congress.

The CPM candidate Sayeda Farhat Afroz, the first woman to represent Islampur in the Assembly, bagged 47,927 votes and defeated her nearest Trinamul Congress rival Abdul Karim Chowdhury by a margin of 7,511 votes. Congress candidate Hamidul Rahman got 22,037 votes.

Chowdhury — a veteran from Islampur who won five times in the last seven Assembly polls — was defeated by the CPM’s Farooq Azam in a triangular contest in the Assembly polls held in May this year. The seat fell vacant after Azam died.

According to observers, had the Congress not put up its candidate, Chowdhury would have had a fair chance of winning. A Congress-Trinamul alliance in Islampur could have seen a repeat of the Bongaon Assembly bypoll in September where the Congress did not contest, thereby allowing a consolidation of anti-Left votes. Saugata Roy had emerged victorious from the seat, which was traditionally anti-Left.

“It has been proved again that it is impossible for the Trinamul to win an Assembly seat without Congress support,” said Rahman.

In Calcutta, Mamata Banerjee, too, realised a straight fight would have seen Trinamul victorious. “A straight fight with the CPM would have led to our victory by at least 15,000 votes. But at times, adjustments do not happen and one will have to accept that,’’ Mamata said.

Without naming information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Mamata said there were some people who want to “smoothly hand over’’ seats to CPM. “As you know, there are some people who believe in gifting seats to CPM. But I must say, Singur is my priority area now and not Islampur,’’ the Trinamul Congress chief added.

The Congress fielded a candidate in Islampur at Das Munshi’s behest and the official reason forwarded by party leaders was that the Trinamul Congress had not consulted them prior to announcing their candidate.

Das Munshi and his wife, Deepa, had campaigned hard for Rahman. Deepa had been camping in the constituency for the campaign.

However, Das Munshi, too, agreed today it was the division of anti-Left votes that helped the CPM win the polls.“The verdict would have been against the CPM if the Trinamul and Congress votes were not divided,” said Das Munshi.