BJP heavyweights fail to make a mark

KOLKATA: In a major setback for the saffron camp, most of the "heavyweight" candidates of the BJP, including a minister and MPs have failed to get the people's mandate in the Assembly polls on Sunday. On the other hand, TMC candidates like Debashis Kumar and Atin Ghosh have come up as the new faces in the state's politics, after serving for a long span as successful councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, with their win from Rashbehari and Kashipur-Belgachia Assembly segments respectively. Former IPS officer and TMC candidate from Debra Humayun Kabir has also defeated BJP's Bharati Ghosh, who was also a former IPS officer, by 11,226 votes.

BJP had fielded its Union minister Babul Supriyo against the outgoing state PWD minister Aroop Biswas, who won by 50,080 votes, from Tollygunge. BJP's MP from Hooghly Locket Chatterjee, who contested from Chinsurah, was also defeated by TMC's Asit Majumdar by 18,417 votes. Again, former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta failed to win from Tarakeswar Assembly segment and was defeated by Ramendu Singha Roy by 7,484 votes.

Though BJP's Mukul Roy won from Krishnanagar Uttar by 35,089, his son Subhrangshu Roy was defeated by TMC by 13,347 from Bijpur in North 24-Parganas. Nisith Pramanik, BJP MP from Cooch Behar, won by a margin of only 57 votes defeating TMC's Udayan Guha. Former Transport minister Madan Mitra made a comeback with a landslide victory of 35,408 votes from Kamarhati Assembly constituency. The ministers of Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet in the past two terms, including Bratya Basu, Indranil Sen and Shashi Panja have won from Dum Dum, Chandernagore and Shyampukur Assembly segments respectively. Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who contested from the Bhowanipore Assembly constituency, won by 28,719 votes. Outgoing TMC ministers Gautam Deb and Rabindranath Ghosh, however, failed to get the people's mandate this time. The outgoing Paschimanchal Unnayan minister Shantiram Mahato got defeated by only 423 votes.

Interestingly, the five-time MLA from Siliguri and the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister during the Left regime Ashoke Bhattacharya also lost.

TMC candidate from Durgapur Purba Assembly constituency Pradip Majumdar, who was the Chief Minister's Agriculture advisor, won by 3,746. TMC's Manas Bhunia won from Sabang by 9,864 votes.