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Calcutta, Feb. 28: Congress strongman Adhir Chowdhury won the battle of prestige today, ensuring the victory of his candidate in Rejinagar over “traitor” Humayun Kabir who had switched to Trinamul to become a minister.
As junior railway minister Chowdhury himself put it, he “proved” that “the so-called Mamata wave” had not been able to enter Murshidabad and he has ensured that the Congress bastion is intact “with or without her”.
Congress candidate Rabiul Chaudhury bagged 66,876 (39.08 per cent), while Kabir, a minister of state in the Mamata cabinet, secured 40,911 votes (23.9 per cent).
The second place went to RSP candidate Sirajul Islam, who got 55,154 votes, around 12,500 votes less than what the party had got in 2011.
“The traitor, the new Mir Jafar, never stood a chance. The chief minister cannot breach our fortress,” said Manoj Chakraborty, the Congress’s Behrampore MLA.
Kabir’s defeat comes as a blow to Trinamul ahead of the rural polls because the party had planned to make inroads into Murshidabad.
“It would be difficult to keep him (Kabir) in the government,” a cabinet source said.
Kabir has already started pinning his hopes on the 2016 Assembly polls. “We shall see in three years,” he said.
The Left had hoped to better its tally given the vote split between the Congress and Trinamul. “Our vote share was reduced by 12 per cent for no apparent reason. We will probe this,” said RSP district secretary Biswanath Banerjee.
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