Statesman News Service
Raiganj, 31 July
In Hemtabad and Goalpokhar-II samitis of North Dinajpur district, the TMC candidates failed to win any seat. In Raiganj panchayat samiti they won only one seat.
The Trinamul Congress leaders blamed the “secret alliance” between the Congress and Left Front for the setback.
However, the TMC achieved remarkable results in the gram panchayat, panchayat samitis and zilla parishad in Itahar.
CPI-M leaders claimed that after spreading violence the TMC leaders captured Itahar. The residents were not spontaneously casting votes for them, they said.
In Itahar, the TMC bagged eight gram panchayats out of a total of 12. They captured 23 seats in Itahar panchayat samiti out of a total of 35 seats. They even bagged all three seats of the zilla parishad in Itahar.
Apart from Itahar, the TMC candidates failed to achieve remarkable results from other blocks.
In Raiganj, Karandighi, Goalpokhar-I, Goalpokhar-II and Hemtabad blocks, they failed to capture any gram panchayat and any seat of zilla parishad. No TMC candidate won in Goalpokhar-II and Hemtabad panchayat samitis. 
They captured only 13 GPs out of a total of 98 of the district. In the panchayat samiti and zilla parishad they won 23 and five candidates respectively.
The secretary of the state TMC committee, Mr Ashim Ghosh, said: "In Raiganj, Karandighi, Kaliaganj, Hemtabad, Goalpokhar-I and Goalpokhar-II, both the Congress and CPI-M were united against the TMC candidates. As a result, we did not achieve satisfactory results from there. However, in the next elections our result will be far better from there."
The Secretary of North Dinajpur CPI-M committee, Mr Bireswar Lahiri, said: "In the afternoon on the polling day, the TMC activists guided by their Itahar MLA Amal Acharjee created panic among voters of Itahar after killing our member Md Abdul Azij. Since then, the members of the Left families could not go to cast votes. In addition, many of our counting agents could not join the counting procedure because of the threat of TMC. The TMC gained a majority after committing crimes only. There was no fair elections in Itahar at all."