Dinesh Trivedi, a Gujarati MP elected from West Bengal

A Gujarati MP Dinesh Trivedi who has been elected in recent Lok Sabha elections from Barrackpore in West Bengal may become central Minister according to sources based in Delhi.

Dinesh Trivedi, a Gujarati Kutchi industrialist and adviser of Trinamool Congress(TMS) supremo Mamta Banerjee has won parliamentary election as a Trinamool candidate from Barrackpore constituency in West Bengal. Trivedi defeated his nearest rival Tarit Topdar, the six-time heavyweight sitting CPM MP, by more than 60,000 votes. A noted industrial belt of West Bengal, Barrackpore is supposedly one of the biggest Left strongholds just outside Kolkata.

The sudden closure of some jute mills and 19 other major industrial units helped Trivedi to magnetise voters towards them. As Barrackpore is an industrial belt, people from various states are staying here. Therefore, a mixed culture is growing. TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee placed Dinesh Trivedi in this Lok Sabha seat to woo the non-bengali voters.

Barrackpore constituency consists of seven legislative assemblies – Bhatpara, Jagaddal, Amdanga, Noapara, Naihati, Bijpur and Titagarh. In the last assembly election in 2006, only one TMC candidate – Arjun Singh had won in the Bhatpara assembly seat. But the CPI-M candidates had won in all other assembly seats. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, Tarit Baran Topder had won in the Barrackpore seat by defeating his nearest TMC rival candidate Arjun Singh by 1.65 lakh vote. At least 4,43048 people cast their votes in favor of their dear leader.

Trivedi who hails from Bidada village of coastal Mandvi Taluka in Gujarat’s Kutch district was already a Rajya Sabha member belonging to TMC. Trivedi, a former Congressman is the General Secretary of Trinamool Congress who is said to haveplayed a key role in forging the Congress-TMC alliance. Interestingly Dinesh Trivedi had fought the Lok Sabha election from Kutch in Gujarat as the Congress candidate in 1996 but he suffered defeat by a big margin.