TMC sweeps all four seats in West Bengal assembly bypoll

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], July 13 (ANI): The Trinamool Congress continued on its winning spree in the West Bengal Assembly bypolls, clinching all four seats, three of which were earlier held by its rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The TMC had won 29 out of 42 seats in West Bengal in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur who won by a margin of 33455 votes against BJP’s Binay Kumar Biswas has become the youngest MLA in the West Bengal Assembly.

“It is not only my win but Mamata Banerjee’s win too. It is a win for all the workers and voters. I have seen there are a lot of issues with bridges and roads in this constituency. So, I will work on that. I will stay here for the people…,” TMC winning candidate from Bagda Assembly seat Madhuparna Thakur said speaking to ANI.

TMC’s Supti Pandey defeated BJP’s Kalyan Chaubey by a margin of 62312 votes; Mukti Mani Adhikari who recently joined TMC from the BJP, defeated Manoj Kumar Biswas fielded by the BJP by a margin of 39048; Krishna Kalyani, another BJP turncoat defeated BJP’s Manas Kumar Ghosh by a margin of 50077 votes.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that out of four seats, her party has won back three seats that were formerly held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has retained one seat previously held by the TMC.

“Among the four seats, three were held by the BJP, both in the Lok Sabha and in the Vidhan Sabha. We have won all three and held on to our seat as well. That means four out of four. I express my gratitude to our people for this victory,” Banerjee said speaking to reporters in Kolkata on Saturday after her visit to Mumbai.

Thanking people for her party’s victory the Trinamool supremo said, “We are dedicating our victory in the Lok Sabha polls and Vidhan Sabha polls to July 21…Despite all conspiracy, on one hand the BJP and on the other hand the agencies, people have voted for us.”

Speaking about Raiganj assembly bypoll, Banerjee said, “BJP and Congress made us lose (from Raiganj) by using money in polls. Then I asked Krishna Kalyani to contest the polls because he was the MLA from the region. He accepted the challenge and we are grateful to people for voting him to power.”

“In Ranaghat, Mukut Mani was a BJP MLA like Krishna Kalyani. After he joined our party, we gave him ticket. He lost the Lok Sabha polls from Ranaghat maybe due to false campaigning, hatred and conspiracy by the Election Commission. But he has won the Assembly bypoll this time. He was a BJP MLA. Ranaghat is a BJP seat that has now been won by the TMC,” she added.

Speaking about Bagdah assembly bypolls where the TMC has fielded their youngest candidate, Banerjee said, “In Bagdah as well, Biswajit (Das) lost the polls. But he is a good, strong leader. He said that he will contest in future but he is not willing to contest this seat now. So we fielded our youngest candidate, Mamatabala Thakur’s daughter Madhuparna Thakur. Madhuparna has given a tough fight. People over there supported us and she has won.”

On the bypoll results in the rest of the country, the Chief Minister said that the BJP has managed to win only in two seats in the states where they are in power.

“I have heard that BJP has fallen back all over the country. I think they have managed to win in two seats in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where they are in power. I do not know what they have done there. In the rest of the seats, they have not won. So the trend all over India is against BJP,” the Chief Minister said.

Responding to claims from the Opposition that the BJP-led NDA will not be in power at the Centre for long, Banerjee said, “The trend is very clear. The mandate is not in favour of NDA, it is in favour of INDIA. It is not in favour of BJP. I may be wrong. But I heard that they (NDA) collectively got 46 per cent votes. INDIA has got 51 per cent votes. So the mandate is against them.”

Meanwhile, TMC’s Kunal Ghosh said that the game has started and those who had voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha polls have realised that they are not ready to waste their votes on the BJP.

“…This was bound to happen. Some people who had voted for BJP in Lok Sabha, have realised that they will not waste their votes…,” Ghosh said speaking to ANI on Saturday.

The TMC leader also claimed that the Narendra Modi government is not going to stay in power at the Centre for long.

“The game has started. Modi government in Delhi will not stay for a long time. INDIA alliance will form the government and the role of TMC in it will be very significant,” Ghosh said.

TMC candidate from Maniktala Assembly constituency, Supti Pandey said, “I am grateful to every councillor, all my team leaders, block presidents and on top of that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee…”

Meanwhile, on the BJP’s poor performance in the assembly bypoll, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said that BJP and the “agency raj” are continuously losing strength, adding that people are saying, “Tumse na ho payega” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“So @AITCofficial wins 4/4 assembly by-polls in Bengal, while INDIA wins 10/13 nationally. @BJP4India & its Agency Raj continues its losing streak. People are saying “Tumse na ho payega @narendramodi”,” Moitra said speaking to ANI on Friday.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar however claimed that there has been “fraud” and his party had earlier complained to the Election Commission.

“…The way the results have come, BJP has got three votes in some booths, and four votes in some booths, this is fraud in the name of votes…We have complained to the Election Commission earlier also but there was no hearing…,” Majumdar said speaking to reporters.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shankar Ghosh said that they will be scrutinizing the results at the booth level and find out the drawback from their side.

“We are waiting for the final result. We will wait and thereafter we will scrutinize all the booth results. Then we can say what is the drawback from our side,” Ghosh said speaking to ANI.

Speaking about the alleged violence unleased by the ruling party ahead of polls, Ghosh said, “But as you know, from day one we have always tried to explain the terror politics done by the ruling party TMC and that also affects the polling result.”

“If there is any kind of gap from our organisational part we will try to overcome it,” he added.

West Bengal witnessed a voter turnout of 62.71 per cent in the bypolls to four assembly constituencies. The bypolls in West Bengal were necessitated as Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah, and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin gave up their seats to contest the Lok Sabha elections.