Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thanked the people of the state as her party, the Trinamool Congress, bagged all the six assembly seats that went to the by-elections, saying that it would help her work for the people.
"I would like to thank and congratulate the 'Maa, Mati and Manush' from the bottom of my heart. Your blessings will help us work for the people in the coming days. We all are common people and that is our identity. We are not zamindars, but the custodians of the people," she wrote on X.
মা-মাটি-মানুষকে জানাই বিনম্র চিত্তে অভিবাদন। জয় বাংলা 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/FUQxCI1xW2
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 23, 2024
Right when the counting of votes began at 8 am, the Mamata-led party was surging ahead of its rivals in all six Assembly seats.
Massive wins
Two of the TMC candidates won with a massive margin of over 1 lakh votes in Haroa and Sitai(SC) their rivals resulting in all their contestants losing their deposits.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) website, Sangita Roy of All India Trinamool Congress had won the Sitai(SC) seat with a whopping margin of 1,30,636 votes. She polled 1,65,984 and her nearest rival from BJP polled 35,348 votes. The Congress candidate finished third with 9,177 votes. Six others who were in the fray against Roy forfeit their deposits.
Roy, broke into tears after securing victory. It was a certainty that the Trinamool candidate would win the Sitai assembly seat in Cooch Behar. But she did not expect to get 1 lakh 65 thousand 984 votes. In the 2021 elections, Trinamool candidate Jagadish Verma Basunia got 1 lakh 17 thousand 908 votes. Her huge victory in the assembly by-poll is reminiscent of Udayan Guha's victory.
Earlier, Deepak Kumar Roy was the BJP candidate in the assembly elections. He got 1 lakh 7 thousand 796 votes which is 45.5% of the total votes. He was the candidate in this by-election as well. But the saffron has completely faded in the grass flower storm. The BJP candidate got 35 thousand 348, which is only 16.2 percent of the total votes.
SK Rabiul Islam who is contesting from Haroa won by a massive vote margin of 1,31,388 lakh votes over Piyarul Islam of the All India Secular Front. The latter managed to poll 25,684 votes, coming close to saving his election deposit. When converted, Piyarul's poll basket received around 12.53 per cent whereas he required over 12.65 per cent to recover his deposit. The saffron party candidate Bimal Das and the grand old party candidate Habib Reza Chowdhury polled 13,570 and 3765 votes, resulting in 6.62 percent and 1.84 percent. They were among the eight who forfeit their deposit.
A triumphant victory driven by the unwavering love and trust of the people!
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) November 23, 2024
Together, we move forward with renewed strength and determination.
Joy Bangla! pic.twitter.com/Tij6QKdV86
TMC wrests Madarihat from BJP
In Madaharit(ST), Jayaprakash Toppo of TMC polled 28,168 votes more than his nearest rival from BJP, Rahul Lohar who polled 51,018 votes. With this victory, the TMC has breached Madarihat, which was won by the BJP in 2021 and remained as a saffron bastion in the northern part of the state. Madarihat is the lone seat that never voted for Trinamool Congress. In 1962, Left Front constituent RSP won from the Madarihat assembly, but it was jolted in the next term in 1967 when Congress candidate DN Rai snatched victory. After that there was no looking back for RSP. Till 2011, the Left party kept on winning the seat till BJP's Manoj Tigga won in 2016 and 2021. Tigga won from this constituency in 2021 by getting about 90,000 votes and is now the MP from Alipurduar. He vacated his seat necessitating this by-election.
Former Alipurduar MP John Barla of BJP blamed it on Tigga. "The district president (Manoj Tigga) voted without me in the by-election. He does not organise in the tea gardens. He did not care about the tea garden leaders. He did not care about me either. In 2021, I won all seven assembly seats in my Lok Sabha. But due to Manoj Tigga's arrogance, I also lost the seat I won from Madarihat. Now let him understand. If it continues like this, we will be cleaned up in 2026," Barla rued.
The remaining five of the seats are in the TMC's stronghold in south Bengal.
Victory echoes across Bengal! 🎉
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) November 23, 2024
Glimpses of celebrations from every corner of the state as we secure 6 out of 6 seats in the by-polls. This triumph belongs to the people, their trust, and their unwavering belief in progress.
Together, we rise stronger! pic.twitter.com/BPwUgpDk1A
In Naihati, TMC candidate Sanat Dey emerged victorious defeating his rival Rupak Mitra by 49,277 votes. Dey polled 78,772 votes. Despite creating a storm in the campaign, Left-backed CPI (ML) Liberation candidate Debajyoti Majumdar failed to make an impact. Congress candidate Paresh Sarkar was a pushover.
After the results were declared, newly-winning Trinamool Congress candidate Sanat Dey said, "The people of Naihati have given their verdict against the propaganda of BJP and the Left. People have understood what the real truth is. People have voted for Mamata Banerjee. They have voted for the development of Bengal."
In Mednipur, Sujoy Hazra polled 1,15,104 votes which was 33,996 more than his nearest rival, Subhajit Roy(Bunty) of the BJP to win the seat. Congress candidate Shyamal Kumar Ghosh polled 3,946 votes and finished fourth after CPI candidate Mani Kuntal Khamrai. Hazra increased his margin by bettering the record of actress June Mallya's winning margin. Trinamool continued its winning streak defeating BJP candidate advocate Shubhajit Roy by a margin of 33,190 votes.
Hazra said, "My first task will be to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee." He suggested the results have dismissed all the allegations and that the people of the state will be happy about it. "It would have been better if the margin had increased further. We thought the margin would be over 40,000. We will investigate why it was not so, through dialogues. But I expect the number of votes in the city wards to be less than in the villages, and in 2026 it will be double across the entire municipality," he asserted.
In Taldangra, Falguni Singhababu polled 98,926 votes and defeated his nearest rival, Ananya Roy Chakraborty by 34,082 after 12 rounds of counting here. Chakraborty polled 64,844 votes. Sinhababu told reporters that this result of Trinamool Congress is due to the trust of the people in Mamata Banerjee.
On the other hand, BJP candidate from Taldangra assembly constituency Ananya Roy Chakraborty said, "There is nothing to say. I tried to reach people's homes during the campaign, but people also responded. Many congratulations to the winner."
According to our reporters from the ground, TMC kept building its early leads and converted them into victories later in the day.
Why by-elections?
The by-elections were necessitated following the resignation of MLAs who successfully contested in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leaving their assembly constituencies vacant. The state's by-polls recorded a voter turnout of 69.29 percent.
During the campaign, sporadic incidents of violence were reported. These include a crude bomb attack in Bhatpara in the vicinity of Naihati, which left a local TMC worker dead.
The Left Front has ditched itself from Congress since 2021. The party was looking to assess its own relevance. The Congress, under its new state chief Suvankar Sarkar, has fielded candidates in all six constituencies, with none of them even finishing second.
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