In a jolt to the CPM-led Left Front, Trinamool Congress on Wednesday defeated its candidates in trouble-torn Nandigram in the three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal.
The Front also faced rout in three Zilla Parishad seats in Singur to Trinamool Congress candidates.
The polls are seen as a litmus test for the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government's farmland acquisition policy for industries.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress wrested control of Zilla Parishad in East Midnapur where trouble-torn Nandigram is located. It won 32 of the 53 seats, results of which were declared so far.
In Nandigram the CPM has lost 3 of the 4 Zilla Parishad seats and is trailing in the fourth. In stark contrast to the panchayat polls of 2003 when the Left had bagged all 4 zilla parishad seats.
In Singur the other troubled zone the CPM has lost in all 3 Zilla Parishad seats.
It is the first time that Trinamool Congress gained control over a Zilla Parishad, the main decision-making body in the district. In the last poll in 2003, the Trinamool had two seats in the Zilla Parishad.
Never before has the industry been a major plank in the panchayat polls, particular in Nandigram and Singur.
The Left Front was, however, was maintaining a lead in other districts and having a neck-and-neck contest in zilla parishad seats in Congress strongholds of Murshidabad and Malda.
Polls were held to the three-tier panchayat system in three phases on May 11,14 and 18.
In Nandigram 14 people were killed in police firing here during clashes over the proposed acquisition of land for a chemical hub.
Singur turned into a volatile zone with the government stepped in to acquire agricultural land for a Tata Motors factory to build its peoples car,the Nano
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