Trinamool sweeps Asansol & Ballygunge bypolls
KOLKATA: After its landslide victory in the last municipal polls in Bengal earlier this year, Trinamool Congress (TMC) scripted a massive win in the bypolls in Asansol Parliamentary and Ballygunge Assembly seats, the results of which were declared on Saturday. Thanking the voters, party supremo Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "We consider this to be our people's warm Shubho Nababarsho gift to our Ma- Mati- Manush organization. Salute to the voters for reposing faith in us, yet again."
"I sincerely thank the electors of the Asansol Parliamentary Constituency and the Ballygunge Assembly Constituency for giving decisive mandate to AITC party candidates," she tweeted further.
Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary, tweeted: "Thank you ASANSOL & BALLYGUNGE for taking a step towards an INDIA that is free from the hate-mongers and the oppressors! With your blessings and love, we promise to deliver. Your well-being has always been our PRIORITY and it's only going to get better from here." Earlier, Abhishek had taken part in roadshows in both Asansol and Ballygunge.
TMC won the Asansol Parliamentary seat for the first time since its inception and retained the Ballygunge Assembly seat. Trinamool nominee Shatrughan Sinha won the Asansol seat by a record margin of 3,03,209 votes while Babul Supriyo was elected from Ballygunge by a margin of 20,228 votes.
BJP has been washed away in both the seats with party nominee Keya Ghosh's deposit being forfeited in Ballygunge. CPI(M) candidate Partha Mukherjee's deposit has also been forfeited in Anansol while Saira Shah Halim came second in Ballygunge. However, Congress has lost deposits in both seats.
The by-election in Asansol became necessary after former Union minister Babul Supriyo left BJP and joined Trinamool. This is for the first time that TMC got the seat since its inception in 1998. BJP had won the seat in 2014 and 2019. Sinha got 56.62 per cent votes while Agnimitra Paul of BJP got 30.46 per cent votes. CPI(M) candidate Partha Mukherjee got 7.80 per cent votes while Congress candidate Prasenjit Puitandy got 1.30 per cent votes.
Sinha thanked Mamata Banerjee for giving him the opportunity to serve the people of Asansol. "I thank the people for their overwhelming support. The huge participation of people in road shows and meetings made me confident that I will be elected from the seat."
Malay Ghatak, the state Law minister, who oversaw the election in Asansol for TMC, said: "The people of Asansol have created history. The result shows that they have kept full faith in Trinamool and Mamata Banerjee."
The by-election in Ballygunge became necessary following the death of Subrata Mukherjee. Babul got 49.69 per cent vote while Saira Shah Halim of CPI(M) got 30.06 per cent vote. BJP got 12.83 per cent vote and Congress got 5.06 per cent vote.
"The BJP and CPI(M) had used deplorable language in the campaign. They had lodged personal attacks on me. But despite that, winning the seat by over 20,000 votes has been made possible because of the overwhelming support of the people," said Babul.
Trinamool fell behind CPI(M) in wards 64 and 65, under the Ballygunge Assembly constituency. Debashis Kumar, Trinamool South Kolkata district president, said a post-poll analysis would be done to find out the reason for the same.
Saumitra Khan, BJP MP from Bishnupur, said: "The poor performance of the party is the inevitable result of engaging incapable people to conduct the election."
Agnimitra Paul said: "Time has come to do serious analysis keeping in mind 2024 Lok Sabha election. There was no rigging in the election and one has to accept the people's mandate."
Meanwhile, in a boost to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) combine in Maharashtra, the Congress won the bypoll to the Kolhapur North assembly constituency, retaining the seat by defeating the BJP by a margin of over 18,000 votes.
Congress-MVA candidate Jayashri Jadhav bagged 96,176 votes, while BJP's Satyajeet Kadam polled 77,426 votes.
The by-election was necessitated because of the death of sitting Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav due to Covid in December 2021.
The ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh on Saturday won the bypoll to the Khairagarh assembly constituency in Rajnandgaon district with Yashoda Verma defeating her nearest rival Komal Janghel of the BJP by a margin of 20,176 votes.
Verma got 87,879 votes while Janghel secured 67,703 votes, he said.
By-election was held following the death of incumbent JCC (J) MLA and former MP Devvrat Singh in November 2021.
The opposition RJD in Bihar wrested the Bochahan assembly seat from the ruling NDA, with its candidate defeating the BJP nominee by a big margin of over 35,000 votes.
RJD candidate Amar Paswan, whose father Musafir Paswan's death had necessitated the by-election, polled 82,116 votes while his nearest BJP rival Baby Kumari got only 45,353.
Expelled state minister Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), on the ticket of which Musafir Paswan had won the seat in 2020, finished a distant third with 29,671 votes. VIP was an NDA constituent till about a month ago.
