Trinamool Congress (TMC) swept the bypolls in West Bengal on Tuesday. Four assembly seats – Dinhata, Gosaba, Santipur and Khardaha went to polls on October 30 and counting was held on Tuesday.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter after winning the four seats and wrote, “My heartiest congratulations to all the four winning candidates! This victory is people’s victory, as it shows how Bengal will always choose development and unity over propaganda and hate politics. With people’s blessings, we promise to continue taking Bengal to greater heights!”
In Dinhata seat, the TMC candidate Udayan Guha won with a whooping margin of 1,64,089 votes. Guha was earlier defeated by Cooch Behar MP and Minister of State, Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik by a slim margin of 57 votes in the same constituency during assembly polls.
However, Pramanik along with another BJP MP, Jagannath Sarkar who had contested and won from the Santipur seat, resigned as MLAs as both of them wanted to continue as MPs. Later, Pramanik was elevated to the post of Minister of State, Home Affairs during the cabinet reshuffle. With their resignation, these two seats fell vacant.
In Santipur, TMC candidate Braja Kishor Goswami won the seat by 63,892 votes.
Another record margin was registered at Gosaba seat, where TMC candidate Subrata Mondal beat the BJP candidate by 1,43,051 votes.
Sitting minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who had to vacate the Bhabanipur seat for CM Mamata Banerjee, contested bypolls from Khardaha after TMC candidate from the seat, Kajal Sinha passed away due to COVID-19. Chattopadhyay won by 93,832 votes.
On the other hand, BJP claimed that the state government unleashed the entire machinery to get votes in their favour.
“Amusing to see TMC gloating at the lead in bypolls. The entire state machinery, including police and civil admin, was unleashed to intimidate voters. But this is a big admission that violence post 2May was at the behest of the ruling TMC. Mamata Banerjee as HM presided over it,” BJP leader incharge of West Bengal, Amit Malviya tweeted.
