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CHAT

State:	West Bengal
Constituency:	Darjeeling
Total Votes Polled:	843297
Winner: CPM	R B Rai	357291
Runner Up: INC	K B Chettri	280167
Margin: 77124 (9.91%)

Inder Jit, journalist-turned-Subhas Ghisingh associate, was elected from here in 1989 on the Gorkha National Liberation Front ticket; he returned to the Lok Sabha in 1991, on a Congress ticket, the first time the party won this seat since 1977 when its candidate K B Chettri represented it. In 1996 R B Rai of the CPI-M defeated Chettri by 77,000 votes.