New Delhi: The people of Bengal have given a befitting reply to the arrogance and highhandedness of the BJP, by ousting them in the recently held Assembly by-polls in the state, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday after the results showed her party sweeping all three seats. Congratulating voters, she said she would visit Karimpur, Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj - the seats where the by-polls were held - to thank them.
"This is the first time in the past 22 years when the party candidate has won in Kaliaganj. People from all walks of life have voted for our candidates. It is a victory for Ma, Mati, Manush. We will have to work more for the people," she maintained.
The Trinamool Congress has also won the Kharagpur Sadar seat for the first time since the inception of the party. It was a Congress stronghold from 1972 to 2016, when Gyan Singh Sohanpal had consistently won the seat. However, BJP's Dilip Ghosh had defeated the Congress man in the 2016 Assembly polls.
Banerjee said the saffron party had induced fear among people in the name of National Register of Citizens (NRC) and had tried hard to divide the society along the lines of religion, community and caste. "The people of Bengal could not accept the divisive politics of BJP and people from all communities have voted for Trinamool nominees. I am indebted to them," Banerjee said.
By-election in the three constituencies was announced after the two MLAs from Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur seats, namely Dilip Ghosh and Mahua Moitra, became MPs following the Lok Sabha poll in 2019, while Congress MLA from Kaliaganj, Pramatha Nath Roy died a few months ago.
In Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur, Trinamool candidates Pradip Sarkar and Bimalendu Sinha Roy defeated their nearest BJP rivals by over 20,000 votes. Sarkar defeated Prem Chand Jha of BJP by 20,853 votes while Sinha Roy defeated Joyprakash Mazumdar of BJP by 23,910 votes. On the other hand in Kaliaganj, Trinamool nominee Tapan Deb Singha defeated Kamal Chandra Sarkar of BJP by 2,414 votes.
It may be recalled that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP candidates had got lead of 85,000 and 78,000 votes respectively in the Parliamentary constituencies where Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj are located.
Trinamool Congress supporters played with green abir and took out victory rallies once the results started tilting towards the party candidates. In Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur, it became quite evident that Trinamool candidates were going to be elected from the seats once the counting of the seventh round ended. In Kaliaganj, however, the result was evenly poised till the last round.
In Kharagpur Sadar, Trinamool got 47.66 per cent votes against BJP and the Congress-Left alliance, which bagged 36.02 per cent and 14.08 per cent of the votes cast respectively. In Kaliaganj, Trinamool got 44.65 per cent against 43.54 per cent of BJP and 8.64 per cent of Congress-Left alliance, whereas in Karimpur, Trinamool got 50.48 per cent against 38.07 per cent of BJP and 9.01 per cent of the alliance.
The Congress-Left alliance failed to make a dent in the vote-share. In Kaliaganj, Dhitashree Roy of Congress got 18,854 votes while Golam Rabbi of CPI(M) got 18,381 votes in Karimpur. In Kharagpur Sadar, Chittaranjan Mondol of Congress got 22,631 votes.