Buddhadeb and several Left Front ministers lose

He had been winning from this seat since 1987.

Sen,a CPI-M strongman from Burdwan,was trounced by TMC’s Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhyay,a political greenhorn by 36,438 votes.

Another big upset for CPI-M was the defeat of Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta. He was trounced by former secretary general of FICCI Amit Mitra at Khardah constituency in North 24 Parganas district,regarded a Marxist bastion,by a convincing margin of 26154 votes.

Marxist stalwart from Siliguri and Urban Development minister Ashok Bhattacharya lost to his TMC rival Rudra Narayan Bhattacharya by a huge margin of 36,110 votes.

Another major upset was CPI-M star campaigner and Housing Minister Gautam Deb,who had predicted a sure victory for the Front but fell by the wayside at Dum Dum.

TMC candidate and playwright Bratya Basu defeated Deb,who had changed his constituency this time,by 31,497 votes. Deb earlier won from Hasnabad in North 24 Paraganas.

The winds of change was so strong that even veteran CPI-M leader and Sunderban Development minister Kanti Ganguly lost from Raidighi to TMC greenhorn cinestar Debasree Roy.

Other ministers who failed to make it included IT minister Debesh Das,Labour minister Anadi Sahoo,PWD minister Kshiti Goswami,Higher Education minister Sudarshan Roychowdhury and Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu.

Prominent winners from CPI-M included Land and Land Revenue minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah and Health Minister Surya Kanta Mishra.

The prominent TMC candidates who emerged victorious included the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing assembly Partha Chatterjee,mayor Sovan Chatterjee,senior party leader Subrata Mukherjee and former FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra.

Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee,won from Nalhati in Birbhum district on a Congress ticket.