Agartala, Dec 24 (TIWN / IANS): Tripura's ruling Left Front led by the CPI-M on Friday swept the gram panchayat by-polls winning 40 of the 44 seats where polling was held earlier this week, an official said.

"The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) alone won 35 gram panchayat seats, two Panchayat Samity seats and one Zilla Parishad seat and its partner CPI (Communist Party of India) two gram panchayat seats," State Election Commission secretary Prasenjit Bhattacherjee told IANS.

He said two gram panchayat seats each went in favour of opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress while Congress drew a blank. Polling was held on December 21.

Compared to the elections to three-tier gram panchayat last year, the CPI-M lost two gram panchayat seats to the BJP and one seat to Trinamool, while wresting five seats from BJP (2), Congress (2) and Janata Dal-United (1).

The Left parties, which have a substantial base in the rural areas, earlier won three gram panchayat seats before the by-elections without any contest.