Kolkata, Dec 4 (IANS): The Trinamool Congress was Sunday all set to retain its stronghold, Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, with its candidate Subrata Bakshi establishing an unattainable lead over his nearest Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) opponent in the bypoll.
State Trinamool Congress president Bakshi was ahead with a massive margin of over 2.3 lakh votes against CPI-M's young face Ritabrata Banerjee. Three independent candidates in the fray lost their deposits.
"The postal ballots are still to be counted," West Bengal Election Commission joint chief electoral officer Dibyendu Sarkar told IANS here.
The bypoll, held Nov 30, was necessitated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's resignation from the Lok Sabha after she won the assembly by-election from Bhawanipur two months ago.
The Trianmool's strength in the Lok Sabha would now go up to 19, making it the second largest constituent of centre's Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The DMK has one less seat than the Trinamool.
The constituency has consistently elected Banerje to the lower house of parliament -- half a dozen times over the past 20 years. She won as a Congress candidate in 1991 and 1996 and on a Trinamool ticket in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009.
In the previous elections two years ago, Banerjee had humbled her nearest opponent Rabin Deb of the CPI-M by a margin of 219,571 votes.