Congress captures panchayat seat from CPM

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 22 DEC: The Congress captured a seat of Pandua gram panchayat in Gazole block in the bypolls held on Sunday. In the last panchayat polls, the CPI-M had won the seat.

It may be noted that voters from the area had turned against the CPI-M from the Parliamentary election as the CPI-M could not revive its organisation in this seat of the gram panchayat.

CPI-M performance in other seats in the recent bypolls remained unchanged.

Malda bypolls were conducted for two panchayat samiti seats and three gram panchayat seats.

The CPI-M has been able to retain the Karkoch panchayat samiti seat in Gazole block. On the other hand, the Congress has been able to retain the Birnagar panchayat samiti seat.

The North Malda MP, Mrs Mausam Noor, had campaigned in Gazole to capture Karkoch panchayat samiti seat from the CPI-M.

It may be noted that Gazole was a stronghold of the CPI-M but Mrs Noor managed to secure unexpected lead in Parliamentary election from the Assembly Constituency.

The Left Front partner Forward Bloc has been able to retain the Sahabanchak gram panchayat seat and the Congress retained the Bakhrabad gram panchayat seat in Kaliachak-III.