Kolkata: With ruling Left Front in West
Bengal performing badly in the Assembly bypolls, Chief
Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday declined to comment on
the results.
"No," Bhattacharjee, a senior CPI(M) member shot back
when reporters questioned him at the state secretariat,
Writers Buildings, to comment on the poll outcome.
Jyoti Basu, who had issued an unprecedented appeal to
the Congress to vote for the left in the by-elections, was not
told about the results of the 10 Assembly constituencies.
"He was not informed of the election results. What
does he have to say about it now?" the 96-year-old Marxist
veteran's aide Joykrishna Ghosh said when asked.
Achuthanandan plays down LDF defeat
Playing down the rout
suffered by ruling LDF in the bypolls to three Assembly
constituencies, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today
said the UDF victory should be seen in the context of the Lok
Sabha election outcome, in which the Congress-led front swept
the polls.
"The victory of the Congress should be viewed in this
context (of Lok Sabha poll outcome)," he told reporters here.
In the May Lok Sabha polls, UDF had bagged 16 of the 20
seats in Kerala.
The Chief Minister said the UDF could not perform at the
same level in these areas, as it did in the Lok Sabha polls.
The three segments -- Kannur, Alappuzha and Ernakulam --
where by-polls were held were sitting seats of the Congress,
which they had won even during the LDF wave in the last
assembly elections, he said.
He, however, maintained that LDF had marginally improved
its performance in these constituencies this time and would
take further steps to increase people's support.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy said the
result was a vote against the "anti-people" policies of the
LDF government. "The LDF cannot come out with any
justification for the setback they suffered," he said.
Chandy also thanked the people for their overwhelming
support for the UDF.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 14:43