The tragedy of Tapasi Malik’s murder in the compound of the Nano car factory, it appears, played a bigger role than the exit of the Tatas from Singur in the results of the Lok Sabha elections here. The ghost of Tapasi haunted the CPI(M) in village after village as the party faced a rout in the Singur Assembly segment that falls under the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat. The party, ironically, had instatedCPI(M) zonal committee secretary Suhrid Dutta — one of the teenager’s accused murderers and — as one of its star campaigners.

The CPI(M)’s sitting candidate Rupchand Pal was trounced by Trinamool Congress nominee Dr Ratna Nag by a margin of 81,523 votes. This result can also be read as a nod towards Mamata Banerjee’s strong stand against forcible land acquisition for industry, and for the agitation she led to drive the Tatas out of Singur.

In Singur Assembly segment, Trinamool not only outdid the CPI(M) by over 22,000 votes, but also increased its tally from the 2006 Assembly polls. Rabindranath Bhattacharjee of Trinamool had defeated CPI(M)’s Srikanto Chatterjee by a margin of 17,027 votes in 2006, which means Trinamool won over 5,000 more votes this time. Also, Trinamool even did better than the last panchayat elections in 2008, when it had won the majority of panchayat seats.

Muhammed Ismail, 40, a daily wage earner says, “They murdered the girl and garlanded the accused. The CPI(M) destroyed agricultureand failed to set up the factory. Now we hope that Mamata will clean up the mess.”

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