BJP opens register, but TMC holds fort in West Bengal
17 Sept 2014 5:38 AM IST
The BJP has finally made an entry in the West Bengal Assembly. The party’s candidate Samik Bhattacharya defeated his Trinamool Congress rival and footballer Dipendu Biswas, in the Basirhat (Dakshin) constituency, as per the bypoll results announced on Tuesday, even though the winning margin was as low as 1,500 votes. The TMC however marked a huge win in Kolkata’s Chowringhee constituency where Nayana Bandopadhyay won.
Trinamool top brass say that there is nothing to worry since the winning margin for the BJP is as low as about 1500 votes. ‘In May, 2014 BJP lead in Basirhat Dakshin by 32000 votes. Now we have narrowed the margin. We have recovered 28000 votes in Basirhat Dakshin compared to Lok Sabha election’ said party general secretary Mukul Roy. ‘In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had done much better. In the bypolls, their margin has been greatly reduced. We will make up in the next elections’, Sisir Adhikari, senior Trinamool MP, told Millennium Post.
The seat was earlier won by the CPIM’s Narayan Mukhopadhyay in 2011. The by-poll was caused due to his death.
The other seat in West Bengal, Chowringhee in Kolkata, was bagged by Nayana Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress. Nayana is the wife of Sudip Bandyopadhyay, leader of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party.
‘We have increased our vote share in Chowringhee. We were trailing by 1500. Now we won by almost 15,000 votes’, said a proud Mukul Roy.
This seat was won by Sikha Mitra of Trinamool Congress in the 2011 assembly elections. The by-election was held as the seat fell vacant after Mitra’s resignation from the TMC. Adhikari said that Nayana could perhaps have won by an even better margin. ‘During the bypolls, the turnout is not as high as in the Lok Sabha or assembly polls. Otherwise, Nayana, a strong candidate could have polled even more votes’.
In West Bengal, hardly has any bypoll results been so keenly followed, as the results are vital for both Trinamool and the BJP. The BJP would have liked to secure both to demonstrate its rising fortunes in the State and the Trinamool wanted to prove that the Saradha storm has not touched its political base or popularity. However in the Lok Sabha polls this year, the BJP bagged two seats in Bengal.
The outcome of the by-polls will now prepare the two parties for next year’s Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls and the all-important assembly elections in 2016.
Trinamool top brass say that there is nothing to worry since the winning margin for the BJP is as low as about 1500 votes. ‘In May, 2014 BJP lead in Basirhat Dakshin by 32000 votes. Now we have narrowed the margin. We have recovered 28000 votes in Basirhat Dakshin compared to Lok Sabha election’ said party general secretary Mukul Roy. ‘In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had done much better. In the bypolls, their margin has been greatly reduced. We will make up in the next elections’, Sisir Adhikari, senior Trinamool MP, told Millennium Post.
The seat was earlier won by the CPIM’s Narayan Mukhopadhyay in 2011. The by-poll was caused due to his death.
The other seat in West Bengal, Chowringhee in Kolkata, was bagged by Nayana Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress. Nayana is the wife of Sudip Bandyopadhyay, leader of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party.
‘We have increased our vote share in Chowringhee. We were trailing by 1500. Now we won by almost 15,000 votes’, said a proud Mukul Roy.
This seat was won by Sikha Mitra of Trinamool Congress in the 2011 assembly elections. The by-election was held as the seat fell vacant after Mitra’s resignation from the TMC. Adhikari said that Nayana could perhaps have won by an even better margin. ‘During the bypolls, the turnout is not as high as in the Lok Sabha or assembly polls. Otherwise, Nayana, a strong candidate could have polled even more votes’.
In West Bengal, hardly has any bypoll results been so keenly followed, as the results are vital for both Trinamool and the BJP. The BJP would have liked to secure both to demonstrate its rising fortunes in the State and the Trinamool wanted to prove that the Saradha storm has not touched its political base or popularity. However in the Lok Sabha polls this year, the BJP bagged two seats in Bengal.
The outcome of the by-polls will now prepare the two parties for next year’s Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls and the all-important assembly elections in 2016.
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