Bengal polls: 5 ministers and Madan Mitra among heavyweight losers

Kolkata: A number of heavyweights including five ministers, jailed ex-minister Madan Mitra, Indian soccer icon Bhaichung Bhutia and CPI(M) state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra lost in the West Bengal Assembly elections today.

West Bengal Food processing minister Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury lost his Englishbazar seat by a heavy margin of 39,727 votes against Independent candidate Nihar Ranjan Ghosh who was supported by Left-Congress alliance.

Chandrima Bhattacharya, Minister of State for Health, and Law and Judicial Affairs, also failed to retain her seat from North Dum Dum as she lost out to CPI-M's Tanmoy Bhattacharya by 6549 votes.

In Jadavpur, Power minister Manish Gupta lost to CPI-M's Sujan Chakraborty by 14,942 votes. State PWD minister Sankar Chakraborty was also unlucky from Balurghat by a narrow margin of 1450 votes.

Minister Sabitri Mitra lost Manickchak seat by 12603 votes to Congress leader Md Mottakin Alam.

Madan Mitra, who is in police custody in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case, lost his Kamarhati seat by 4198 votes to CPI-M leader Manash Mukherjee.

It was the first time that a high-profile candidate was fighting elections in the state from jail.

The former state Transport and Sports minister, who was also named in the Narada sting operation, was arrested by the CBI in December, 2014.

CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, who was the opposition leader in the outgoing assembly, lost his Narayangarh seat to Trinamool leader Prodyut Kumar Ghosh by 13,589 votes.

Former Indian football captain and Trinamool candidate Bhaichung Bhutia lost the Siliguri seat by 14,072 votes to Siliguri mayor and former CPI-M minister Ashok Bhattacharya.

In the hills of Kalimpong, sitting MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri, had resigned from GJM and was fighting as an Independent candidate lost to his nearest rival GJM leader Sarita Rai by 11,431 votes.

Trinamool was supporting him from outside. 91-year-old sitting Congress MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal, who is the senior most member in the outgoing assembly, lost his Kharagpur sadar seat to BJP state president Dilip Ghosh beats by 6309 votes.

Former state BJP president and national secretary Rahul Sinha lost Jorasanko constituency of north Kolkata, where the Vivekananda flyover collapse killed 26 people killed on March 31. Trinamool's Smita Bakshi won by a margin of 6290 votes against him.

In the high-profile constituency of Bhabanipur of south Kolkata, Congress leader Deepa Dasmunshi and Netaji kin Chandra Bose lost out to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.