Mamata breaks her own record with a margin of 58,835 votes

Kolkata: Within months of spearheading Trinamool Congress (TMC) to an enormous victory in the Assembly elections, party supremo Mamata Banerjee on Sunday registered a landslide victory in the Bhabanipur bypolls by notching up an all-time high margin of 58,835 votes—breaking her own record— in this urban constituency in the heart of Kolkata, paving the way to oust BJP politically from the Centre in 2024.

In a befitting reply to the "conspiracy hatched to defeat" her in Nandigram, the people of Bhabanipur choose development work over "divisive politics, and politics of hate", and allowed Banerjee to sail past—with 71.9 per cent votes—from her nearest competitor, BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal, who managed to get only about 22 per cent votes, a significant drop in the saffron party's share of votes

TMC has also secured Samserganj and Jangipur Assembly seats, which went to by-elections along with Bhabanipur on September 30, bagging all the 20 seats in Murshidabad district that was once a Congress bastion. Banerjee expressed her gratitude to the people of Bhabanipur for her landslide victory in which she won in all eight wards for the first time in the Assembly segment with around 46 per cent non-Bengali population.

"The eyes of the entire country were on the results of the Bhabanipur bypoll. I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Bhabanipur and that of the entire country for the landslide victory. I have won by 58,835 votes and for the first time was victorious in all the eight wards. This was possible as people came out to vote braving the incessant rainfall and Covid situation. The win has inspired me to work harder for the people. The people of Bhabanipur has been a source of inspiration to take up pro-people measures," Banerjee said referring to the win to be a huge success when the neighbourhood as usual witnessed an unimpressive poll percentage (57.09 per cent) in a bypoll out of total 2.06 lakh electorates.

When Banerjee received 85,263 votes (71.9 per cent of the total votes polled), BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal managed to get only 26,428 votes (22.29 per cent), leaving CPI(M) candidate Srijib Biswas's deposits getting forfeited as he received only 4,226 votes (3.56 per cent).

In the Assembly poll that was held in April, BJP had received 44,786 votes that was 35.16 percentage of the total 1.27 lakh polled votes when TMC's Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had defeated BJP's Rudranil Ghosh by 28,719 votes.

In just four months time, BJP has lost its ground as its poll percentage has dropped to 22.29 with Tibrewal receiving only 26,428 votes. TMC's poll percentage has increased despite there being a drop in total number of voters this time. Total 1.18 lakh people cast their votes on September 30 in Bhabanipur and 85,263 people cast their votes in favour of TMC. It was 73,505 in April's Assembly election when 61.79 per cent votes were polled.

At the same time, deposit of BJP's alleged dummy candidate Satadru Roy of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) has got forfeited as it received only 81 votes. Kalyan Chowbey was found to be Roy's election agent in the bypoll.

The vote percentage in favour of TMC this time was even more than that of in 2011 Assembly polls in which Left Front's 34-year-rule came to an end. TMC's Subrata Bakshi had then defeated CPI(M)'s Narayan Prasad Jain by 49,936 votes by receiving 87,903 votes with a total turnout of 1.35 lakh votes.

Banerjee received more votes this time compared to that of 2011 Bhabanipur bypoll. She had then got 73,635 votes and defeated CPI(M)'s Nandini Mukherjee by 54,213 votes though only 95,064 voters (44.73 per cent) had exercised their franchise.

In the 2016 Assembly election, Banerjee had received 65,520 votes (47.67 per cent) to defeat Deepa Dasmunshi of Congress by 25,301 votes. In 2016 only BJP's poll percentage had increased to 19.13 per cent for the first time in Bhabanipur as it had managed to get 26,299 votes with Chandra Kumar Bose as their nominee.

With the win, Banerjee will now continue as the Bengal's Chief Minister as she was declared defeated in Nandigram only by a slender margin of 1,956 votes on May 2 despite her party's win in 213 seats (out of 292) leaving only 77 for the BJP. Interestingly, the number of BJP MLAs has now reduced to 71 with four of them joining TMC and their MPs Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar had refused to continue as MLA despite winning the elections from Dinhata and Santipur Assembly constituencies respectively.

Speaking to the media along with TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at her Kalighat residence after the bypoll results were announced, Banerjee lashed out both at the BJP and Centre accusing them of hatching a conspiracy against her and her party.

She said: "Centre had hatched conspiracies against us since the (Assembly) elections were announced in Bengal. I was injured as they tried to stop me from contesting the election. People of Bengal were hurt with the defeat at only one place (Nandigram) when we had won in most Assembly segments. There are various reasons behind the defeat. But, I will not open my mouth as the matter is subjudice. Today, I am really happy that the people have given a befitting reply to the conspiracies."

As TMC chairperson had said during the campaign of the bypoll that her party would march ahead to leave a footprint in the entire country after winning Bhabanipur, party supporters were found dancing at the tune of a new song "dilli jabe hawai choti" (the slipper will now march towards Delhi). This comes after the party's "Khela Hobe" song.

Both the party's secretary general Partha Chatterjee and senior leader Firhad Hakim stated that now the time has come for the "Bhabanipur's ghorer meye" to oust BJP from the Centre.

"To see @MamataOfficial win, to see you defeat all forces that tried to break our dear #Bengal apart, is an emotion that CANNOT be put into words. Huge congratulations to our one and only #MamataBanerjee for such a record victory! #MamataBanerjeeForBhabanipur," Chatterjee tweeted.

Hakim tweeted: "This moment is the most special moment for each and every single person in #Bengal who firmly stood beside #MamataBanerjee in her journey, through thick and thin! People of Bhabanipur have chosen the leader of this nation, come 2024! #MamataBanerjeeForBhabanipur".

Raising her three fingers instead of the usual "V" sign while interacting with the media, Banerjee stated that she was not selfish to cherish only her victory. "I will show "three" sign as we have won in all three Assembly segments —Bhabanipur, Samserganj and Jangipur," she said. Trinamool Congress candidates Jakir Hussain from Jangipur and Amirul Islam from Samserganj have won by 92,613 votes and 26,379 votes respectively.

Opposition leaders from across the nation have congratulated TMC chairperson for her win stating it as a "statement of will and resolve to protect democratic interests". Starting from President of Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief MK Stalin have extended their greetings to Banerjee.