TMC sweeps up victory in ward 117 as Amit Singh wins by over 5,000 votes

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress candidate Amit Singh has won the by-election in ward 117, by defeating his BJP rival by over 5,000 votes.

Singh got 7,926 votes while Somnath Banerjee of BJP received 2,444 votes, losing by 5,482 votes. Singh is the son of Tarak Singh, who is the Member, Mayor-in-Council (Drainage) of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

Amitava Karmakar of CPI(M) got 1,011 votes, while Abhishek Singh of Congress bagged 436 votes only.

The seat fell vacant after Sailen Dasgupta of Trinamool Congress died in 2016. After this, the seat remained vacant for two years.

BJP's share of votes has gone down substantially. In 2015, when the KMC election took place, BJP received 4,026 votes while Dasgupta got 6,002 votes. Left Front has also witnessed a similar decline. In 2015, the Left Front candidate had received 2,600 votes, while Karmakar received 1,011. There are 18,893 voters in ward 117.

Commenting on Amit's success, Tarak Singh said people of the area have voted for development. In the past three and a half years, extensive development work has been carried out in the area.

The condition of roads has been improved, better street lights have been installed

and the parks that are situated in the ward have been upgraded.

"People have voted for the extensive development work that has been carried out in the area," Singh said.

There will be another by-election in ward 82, where Mayor Firhad Hakim will be contesting on January 6, 2019. The seat fell vacant after the sitting Trinamool councillor Pranab Biswas resigned recently.