Asansol bypoll: TMC's Shatrughan Sinha breaks record, wins seat by over 3L votes
KOLKATA: After its victory in the Asansol municipal polls in February, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) made a clean sweep in Asansol Parliamentary constituency bypoll by clinching 56.62 per cent of the vote share.
In a befitting reply to the repeated 'outsider' jibes of the opposition party, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha won the seat with a record margin of 3,03,209 votes on a TMC ticket. BJP candidate Agnimitra Paul stood second by bagging 30.5 per cent votes. While CPI(M)'s vote share stood at 7.8 per cent, the Congress could manage to get only 1.30 per cent votes. Interestingly, though Asansol was once considered to be the stronghold of BJP, the saffron party's vote share decreased by about 21 per cent as compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The polling percentage in Asansol Lok Sabha constituency had decreased in the 2022 bypoll compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In 2019, the voting percentage was 76.62. In the recently-concluded bypoll, the polling percentage stood at 66.42. Despite the drop in polling percentage, Sinha won with a record margin.
After winning the Asansol bypoll, Sinha said: "Mamata Banerjee will change the game in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls." Sinha also referred to the TMC supremo as the country's most 'jaandar, shaandar, and damdar (powerful)' leader.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had won the Asansol constituency. Former saffron party MP Babul Supriyo had broken the 2014 record of victory margin by winning with over 1.97 lakh votes. However, Sinha has broken Babul's record by winning the seat with over 3 lakh votes in the bypoll. Commenting on his magnanimous victory, Sinha reportedly said the BJP couldn't 'play its game with the EVMs.' "Free and fair polls were conducted sans any fear or bias. Everyone has witnessed this. And, this (the record victory) is an outcome of the same," he added, as per reports.
In the Asansol civic body polls, the TMC had won 91 seats out of 106. Meanwhile, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh took a dig at BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and held him responsible for the party's poor performance in the Asansol bypoll. "Though there were no apprehensions regarding Trinamool's victory in the bypolls, BJP's decision of entrusting Suvendu with the task of campaigning for the party in Asansol had made it clear that TMC would win with record margin. "Wherever this face (Suvendu) will be seen, people in those areas will support TMC more," he added.
After losing the by-election, Paul reportedly acknowledged that there were errors committed, which led to her defeat. Accepting her defeat, Paul tweeted: "Sorry @narendramodi Sir..I tried my best but couldn't give you this seat…."
