Jyotirmoyee Sikdar defeats BJP minister in Bengal

Asian Games gold medal winner Jyotirmoyee Sikdar defeated union minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers from Krishnanagar seat.

Asian Games gold medal winning athlete Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, fighting the parliamentary elections on the Marxist ticket from West Bengal, defeated Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Satyabrata Mukherjee.

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Sikdar, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) nominee, won the Krishnanagar seat.

Mukherjee, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had bagged the seat in 1999 by a slender margin of 21,000 votes and was tipped to do an encore this time.

But the former athlete, who won two gold medals in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, proved a dark horse as she won by a margin of about 14,000 votes.

Sikdar, immediately after winning, thanked the people and said Mukherjee had failed to keep the many promises he had made to his constituents.

Mukherjee had promised to set up a medical college and a university at Krishnanagar, but couldn't keep his word. Also, several railway projects he had promised did not materialise.