TMC continues winning streak in Ballygunge, Babul Supriyo bags 49.69 % votes

KOLKATA: With Trinamool Congress (TMC) scripting a massive victory in Ballygunge Assembly seat by bagging 49.69 per cent vote in the recently-concluded bypoll, singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo—who had joined the ruling TMC party after quitting BJP recently to take part in the all-round development works carried out by Mamata Banerjee government—continued his winning streak, but on a TMC ticket this time.

Supriyo won the seat by defeating CPI(M)'s Saira Shah Halim by over 20,000 votes. Bagging only 12.83 per cent votes, BJP's Keya Ghosh emerged as a distant third.

The vote share for the Congress party stood at 5.06 per cent.

With his victory, Supriyo gave a befitting reply to the 'no vote for Supriyo' campaign.

The campaign was launched by some groups in the constituency earlier.

Supriyo had joined politics in 2014, when he won the Asansol Parliamentary seat on a BJP ticket and was made the Union Minister of State for Urban Development.

Two years later, the singer-turned-politicoan was made the Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises during a reshuffle. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Supriyo won the Asansol seat again with over 1.97 lakh votes and was named the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The two-time former BJP MP quit the saffron party after the 2021 Assembly elections in Bengal.

The by-election in Ballygunge became necessary following the death of the MLA and former state minister Subrata Mukherjee.

During the bypoll, the Ballygunge constituency had witnessed a voter turnout of about 41.23 per cent.

In the 2021 state Assembly polls, the polling percentage at Ballygunge constituency was recorded at 60.99. Mukherjee had won the seat with a margin of over 75,000 votes.

Speaking about the drop in vote share, Supriyo reportedly said at some places in the constituency, canards were spread against him by the Left.

"Though their (Left) efforts to tarnish my image yielded no good result, some people were perhaps influenced," Supriyo added.