Immoral alliance between Congress-CPI(M) & BJP in Sagardighi: Mamata
Kolkata: The Left Front-backed Congress won the by-poll to the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, which is considered a stronghold of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee, reacting to the result, said all the Opposition parties — CPI(M), Congress and BJP played communal cards to defeat her party.
She added that BJP transferred its votes to the Left-backed Congress which she termed as an “unethical alliance”.
“We lost the Sagardighi bypolls, and I don’t blame anyone for this. In democratic elections, there may be some advantages and disadvantages for a political party. But there was an immoral alliance which I strongly condemn. If you count BJP votes, you will see their vote percentage was about 22 per cent and this time they transferred their votes to the Congress party. CPI(M) and Congress forged an unethical alliance and BJP votes were transferred to them,” said Banerjee.
Addressing a press meet, Banerjee said her party will go it alone in the 2024 elections, “with the support of common people”.
“(In Sagardighi), everyone played the communal card. The BJP, of course, played the communal card. The Congress, CPI(M), however, turned out to be bigger players in this regard,” she stated.
The TMC supremo claimed that the Congress, after having sought the “saffron camp’s help”, should refrain from calling itself anti-BJP.
“In the 2024 elections, the TMC will go solo. We will fight with people’s support. I believe those who want to defeat the BJP will certainly vote for the TMC,” she added.
Meanwhile, Congress’ Bayron Biswas defeated Debasish Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool by a margin of 22,980 votes. BJP’s Dilip Saha finished third. After 16 rounds of counting, Biswas, who enjoys the support of the Left, bagged 87,667 votes, according to the Election Commission website.
TMC’s Debasish Bandyopadhyay got 64,681 votes while BJP’s Saha received 25,815 votes, the EC website revealed.
By-election to the constituency, seen as a prestige fight for state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury in his home district of Murshidabad, was necessitated following
the death of its three-time TMC MLA and state minister Subrata Saha in December last year.
Around 73 per cent of the 2.3 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the Sagardighi bypoll on February 27. Congress gets its first MLA in the state Assembly as its candidate Bayron Biswas won. The ruling Trinamool Congress nominee Debasish Bandyopadhyay came second while BJP’s Dilip Saha finished third.
