Trinamool wins in Bengal's political flashpoints

Even places like Khejuri, Mangalkote and Arambagh had been on the boil as turf battles between Trinamool and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) resulted in heavy loss of life.

In East Midnapore's Nandigram, the Left Front government's plans to acquire 10,000 acres of land for a special economic zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesia-based Salim Group led to violent agitation spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool which eventually resulted in death of 14 farmers in police firing.

Trinamool's Firoza Bibi retained the seat which she won in a by-poll last year. She trounced her Communist Party of India (CPI) rival Parmanand Bharti by over 43,000 votes.

Singur in Hooghly district from where Banerjee had started her save farmland movement saw Trinamool's Rabindranath Bhattacharya defeat CPI-M's Asit Das by over 34,000 votes. Two years of sustained peasant agitation led by Banerjee had driven out auto giants Tata Motors - that had planned to set up its small car Nano plant in this rural belt.
Lalgarh under Jhargram constituency of West Midnapore district had been in the news for a spate of bloodied war between the Maoists, the CPI-M and the Trinamool. The constituency saw Trinamool's Sukumar Hansda getting the better of CPI-M's Amar Bose by over 15,000 votes.

Sustained fighting between the two political powers at Khejuri in East Midnapore district resulted in a bloodbath which claimed several lives.  A well known red citadel gave way to 'green' as Trinamool's Ranjit Mondal came up trumps.

Arambagh, for long an impregnable red fortress in Hooghly district, had been tense after a spate of political clashes. Krishna Santra of Trinamool emerged victorious over CPI-M's Asit Malik by over 19,000 votes. CPI-M's Benoy Dutta had won the seat by a staggering one lakh plus margin in 2001 and over 45,000 in 2006.

The only exception is Burdwan district's Mangalkote, which had hogged national headlines after eight Congress legislators were injured in 2009 when they they were allegedly attacked by armed CPI-M cadres.

CPI-M's Shahajahan Choudhury managed to retain the Marxist pocket borough over Apurba Chaudhuri of Trinamool by a slender lead of 126 votes.

In results that came out May 13, the Trinamool-led alliance won as many as 227 seats in the 294-member assembly, crushing the Left Front which has ruled Bengal for 34 years.