285% jump in BJP votes stings Cong

A day after Abhijit Mukherjee won the Jangipur Lok Sabha bypoll with a wafer thin margin, a stung Congress has already found its villain — the BJP. The saffron party had got a mere 21,000 votes in 2009 when Abhijit's father, Pranab Mukherjee, won the seat by over a lakh votes against his nearest CPM rival. However, this time, the BJP garnered a record 81,000 votes.

So on Sunday, the Congress made an appeal to all "secular" parties, including the CPM, "to guard against the rise of communal forces in districts like Murshidabad which has the highest percentage of Muslims — at 60 per cent — in the country.

"I must appeal to all the secular parties, including the CPM, that we should rise above partisan politics and think of ways on how to resist the rise of communal forces. In a district like Murshidabad, where Muslims are in a majority and has a glorious tradition of secularism, the rise of communal forces can lead to fissures in the society which may spell doom for the country,'' state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya told The Indian Express.

On October 16, the party's executive committee meeting will be held and will review party's performance in the by-election.

"We are now making an assessment and a report is being prepared that will be presented in the Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday," added Bhattacharya.

In the bypoll, two other little known parties — the SDPI and WPI — which had not fielded their candidates in the 2009 elections, got about 65,000 votes. It is to be noted that the Trinamool Congress had not fielded its candidate as a "mark of respect for President Pranab".

The CPM, however, said it never indulged in any communal campaign and instead accused the Congress of raising communal issues. The party's candidate, Mujaffar Hossain, lost by mere 2,536 votes. "It was the votes of the Trinamool supporters and those of disgruntled Congressmen who did not like Abhijit as the candidate that went to the BJP and other small parties. We never indulged in communal campaign. The CPM does not do such kind of things. Instead, the Congress did that obnoxious thing and they had to pay the price,'' said Anisur Rehman, a former Left Front minister who is now an MLA from the district.

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