February 18, 2011
Trinamool opens its account in Manipur
Imphal, Feb 17: K. Sarat of the Trinamool Congress on Thursday won the Konthoujam bye-election to the Manipur legislative assembly — first election victory of the Trinamool Congress in the state. Last year, it had won five assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh. Ms Mamata Banerjee thanked the people of Manipur for her party’s victory. Banerjee thinks her pet slogan maa-mati-manush (mother, land and human beings) for Bengal has also done wonders in faraway Manipur. “I want to thank the people of Manipur. Our candidate won because of the blessings of ma, maati and manush. We had also won in Arunachal Pradesh and these seats are adding to our strength,†Ms Banerjee said. Mr. Sarat defeated his nearest rival S. Ranjan of the Congress by a margin of about 651 votes. Mr Sarat bagged 9,582 votes while Dr Ranjan got 8,937 votes. The third candidate in the fray, Khangenbam Ranjit, an independent, secured 3,871 votes. The counting of votes began early in the morning. Voting for the bye-election was held on February 14 and over 90 per cent voting was recorded.
