Riding the winds of change, Trinamool Congress and ally Congress on Tuesday bagged 8 of the 10 seats in the assembly bypolls in West Bengal, handing out another humiliating defeat to Left Front major, CPM, which drew a blank.

Trinamool Congress, which fielded candidates in seven seats, made a clean sweep winning all of them. Congress, which contested three, won only one when it retained Sujapur assembly seat in Malda.

Even the red citadel of Belgachia East in the metropolis, represented since 1977 by former Transport minister Subhas Chakraborty, crumbled before a resurgent Trinamool Congress. TC candidate Sujit Bose wrested it by a record 28,360 votes from CPM's Ramala Chakraborty, the widow of the former minister.

The party also set foot in North Bengal with Trinamool candidate Khageswar Ray wresting the Rajgunj seat by 15,029 votes from CPM which had fielded Dhanapati Ray.

For the CPM-led ruling Left Front, Forward Bloc's victory in the Congress stronghold of Goalpokhar was the only consolation as as all other partners including CPI-M lost. CPI-M had fielded candidates in five seats and LF partners CPI in two, RSP in one, Forward Bloc one and DSP one.

"It is a victory of democracy and peace. It is also a victory of Ma, Mati, Manush (mother, land and people)," TC chief Mamata Banerjee said.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declined to comment on the Left Front's rout.

"No," Bhattacharjee shot back when reporters questioned him at the Writers Buildings about the debacle.

Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, who had made an unprecedented appeal to the Congress to vote for the Left in the bypolls, was not informed about the debacle.

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