Udayan Guha becomes 1st candidate in state's poll history to have won by over 1.64L votes

KOLKATA/DARJEELING: Breaking records of all winning candidates since election was first held in the state in 1952, Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate from Dinhata, Udayan Guha, won by over 1.64 lakh votes in the bypolls held on October 30, till reports last came in.

Guha had lost to BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik in the Assembly election by 57 votes. But, Pramanik refused to take oath as an MLA, which made by-election mandatory in Dinhata. Pramanik is now the minister of state for Home affairs.

When asked to explain the factors that led to a magical victory within six months of the previous defeat, Guha said: "In the past six months, we had worked for the people, who gradually realised the mistake they had made by voting for BJP candidate. Also, there was resentment among people that the BJP candidate left the area to become a Union minister of state."

Guha claimed that TMC workers and leaders had built intense contact with people listening to their grievances in the past six months. "Just as Swasthya Sathi, which is meant for women empowerment, turned out to be a trump card before the 2021 Assembly election, women kept faith in 'didi' because of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme."

He said party leaders and workers had visited every household and made people aware of various schemes.

The people have realised the futility of the promises made by the BJP before the election.

Born in a political family, Udayan's father Kamal Guha was an undisputed Forward Bloc leader and the then state Agriculture minister in the Left regime. Udayan had won the 2011 Assembly election on Forward Bloc's ticket. He joined TMC in 2015 and won in the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, without waiting for the final result to be declared, at the end of the 10th round of counting—when Guha was leading with 81,460 votes—supporters broke into celebrations, smearing each other with green Abir (powder colour.) Dubbing it as a victory over communal forces, Guha stated: "There was an attempt to elevate a person to the status of God. He is nothing but a paper tiger. We have razed the communal force to the ground. No one will ever take the name of Nisith Pramanik in Cooch Behar politics again."

He thanked the TMC supporters for remaining resilient and giving a strong fight. Victory celebrations were made maintaining all Covid protocols in different areas of North Bengal.