TMC all set to sweep Bengal bypolls, continues its LS victory streak

Kolkata, Jul 13 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Saturday wrested Raiganj, Bagda and Ranaghat Dakshin assembly seats from the BJP and secured an unassailable lead in the Maniktala segment in West Bengal bypolls, continuing its winning streak a month after the party’s resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

The bypolls for the four assembly seats were held on July 10.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates Krishna Kalyani, Madhuparna Thakur, Mukut Mani Adhikari won Raiganj, Bagda, Ranaghat Dakshin seats respectively, while and Supti Pandey was leading in the Maniktala segment in Kolkata.

In Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district, Kalyani won by a margin of 50,077 votes over his nearest BJP rival Manas Kumar Ghosh.

Kalyani got 86,479 votes, while Ghosh bagged 36,402.

Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of TMC Rajya Sabha MP and Matua leader Mamatabala Thakur, won by a margin of 33,455 votes over her rival Binay Kumar Biswas of the BJP in the Bagda assembly seat in North 24 Parganas district.

Madhuparna Thakur got 1,07,706, while Biswas secured 74,251.

Mukut Mani Adhikari of the TMC defeated BJP nominee Manoj Kumar Biswas by 39,048 votes in Ranaghat Dakshin in North 24 Parganas.

Adhikari bagged 1,13,533 votes, while Biswas pocketed 74,485.

With this victory, the ruling party in West Bengal won the Matua community-majority Bagda and Ranaghat Dakshin after a gap of eight years.

TMC’s nominee Supti Pandey was leading by 50,838 votes in Maniktala in Kolkata over her nearest rival Kalyan Chaubey of the BJP, who is also All India Football Federation (AIFF) president.

The BJP secured Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Raiganj segments in the 2021 assembly polls.

Despite the BJP winning the three seats in 2021, the MLAs later switched to the TMC.

The three seats fell vacant after MLAs Kalyani, Adhikari, and Biswajit Das of Bagda resigned from their posts to contest Lok Sabha polls on TMC tickets.

Kalyani, who lost to BJP’s Kartik Chandra Paul in the Lok Sabha polls, was re-nominated from Raiganj in the bypolls.

Adhikari, who was defeated by BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar from the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, was in the fray again from the Ranaghat Dakshin assembly segment.

The Maniktala seat was won by the TMC in 2021 but became vacant after former state minister Sadhan Pandey died in February 2022.

Reacting to the party’s performance in the bypolls, a state BJP leader said they would introspect.

“We will introspect the party’s performance. But the TMC did not allow free and fair elections and there were a lot of irregularities. The ruling party had unleashed a reign of terror,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.

The TMC was quick to counter, dubbing the allegations “baseless”.

“The people have rejected the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls in Bengal and the same thing has happened in the bypolls. The allegation that by-polls were not free and fair is just an excuse to hide their failures,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.

The bypoll results are a shot in the arm for the TMC just a month after the party’s performance in Lok Sabha polls when it had bagged 29 parliamentary seats, up from 22 in 2019.

The results are a fresh disappointment for the BJP after its dismal performance in the parliamentary elections when its tally came down to 12 from 18 in 2019.