Calcutta, June 16: The Congress today fielded for the Dur-gapur I Assembly bypoll the candidate who had lost to the CPM by 40,000 votes in 2005.

Banshi Badan Karmakar, 64, said he hoped to turn the tables riding the wave of change sweeping the state. Immediately after being nominated, he met local Trinamul Congress leaders Malay Ghatak and Prabhat Chatterjee and sought their support.

Trinamul state president Subrata Bakshi later confirmed his party’s support. “I am confident of doing better this time,” Karmakar said. He is pitted against the CPM’s Archana Bhattacharya, 69.

The poll, necessitated by the death of power minister Mrinal Banerjee, will be held on July 5.

The Congress, initially reluctant to field a candidate in the traditional CPM stronghold, entered the fray after Trinamul refused to contest. Mamata Banerjee’s party was apparently wary of a blot on its recent win-win record.

The CPM has won Durgapur since 1967, with an exception in 1972. Even in 2009, when the Left suffered its worst Lok Sabha defeat, the CPM candidate led his Congress rival — fielded by the Congress-Trinamul alliance — by over 16,000 votes in the Durgapur I Assembly segment. In vote share, the Left had an almost 10 per cent advantage over the Opposition combine.

A Congress leader said Karmakar was named following a nod from Sonia Gandhi.