Trinamool Congress sweeps crucial Howrah LS by-poll

In a moral boost ahead of state panchayat election next month, Trinamool Congress on its own managed to retain the Howrah Lok Sabha seat with a comfortable margin, dispelling the negativity surrounding the Mamata Banerjee-government post Saradha scam.

TMC candidate and former international footballer Prasun Banerjee defeated his nearest CPI-M rival Sridip Bhattacharjee by a margin of  over 27,000 votes While TMC and CPI-M grabbed 4,26,273 and 3,99,258 votes respectively, Congress candidate became a distant third securing 96,727 votes.

In 2009, TMC had an alliance with the Congress and won the seat by a margin of more than 37,000 votes.

However, TMC-Congress  had a lead of over 1,80,000 votes in 2011 assembly election in the seven seats that comes under Howrah Lok Sabha constituency.

Incidentally, BJP, which had secured over 50,000 votes in 2011 in the area withdrew its candidate at the last moment. This prompted Left and Congress to accuse TMC of having an "understanding" with BJP ahead of 2014 general election.

But, this time it was always a close battle, given that TMC was contesting on its own and opposition made the Sradha scam and Tmc's alleged assoiciation with such companies, a major campaign issue.

The by-election was necessitated following the death of Trinamool Congress MP Ambika Banerjee.