LS poll results: Surprises galore as political honchos bite the dust in Bengal

Kolkata, Jun 5 (PTI) The defeat of Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in his fortress Baharampur to political rookie Yusuf Pathan in this Lok Sabha election came as a surprise to many, just as were the trouncing of BJP's Dilip Ghosh and CPI(M)'s Mohammed Salim.

The loss of BJP's Nisith Pramanick and Locket Chatterjee at the hands of the Trinamool Congress candidates also raised many eyebrows.

Chowdhury's attempt to win from Baharampur constituency for a sixth consecutive term came to a nought at the hands of cricketer-turned-politician Pathan, who was flown in by the TMC from Gujarat's Baroda to contest from the seat in his first venture into the political arena.

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president was beaten by 85,022 votes, as per the Election Commission (EC) data.

Dilip Ghosh, the previous West Bengal state president of BJP, was vanquished by another cricketer-turned-politician, Kirti Azad of the TMC by 1,37,981 votes in Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.

Under Ghosh's leadership in the state, the BJP surged from two seats in 2014 to 18 out of 42 constituencies in West Bengal in 2019, establishing the saffron party as the main opponent of the TMC in the state.

However, Ghosh's shift from Medinipur constituency to Bardhaman-Durgapur, where the BJP's S S Ahluwalia had won in 2019 by just about 3,000 votes, proved costly for him.

CPI(M)'s West Bengal secretary Mohammed Salim failed to turn around the fortunes of the party in the state, being defeated by the TMC's Abu Taher Khan by 1,64,215 votes.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha polls from Bengal this time also, after having scored a zero in the 2019 general elections and also in the 2021 assembly polls.

CPI(M) loyalists had hoped that Salim, a politburo member of the party, would be able to win the seat, but their hopes were turned to nought by the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

Union minister of State in the last BJP-led NDA government, Nisith Pramanick, suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of TMC candidate Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia in Coochbehar by 39,250 votes.

He is the only BJP candidate to have lost in north Bengal, with the saffron party winning all other six seats down to Maldaha Uttar constituency in the region.

BJP's Locket Chatterjee's hopes of a second consecutive win from Hooghly was dashed by former actor and television reality show host Rachna Banerjee, another rookie candidate fielded by the TMC who emerged triumphant.

Chatterjee was defeated by a margin of 76,853 votes by Banerjee, in whose reality show "Didi No 1" Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was an invitee before her name was announced as the TMC candidate from Hooghly. PTI AMR NN