Asansol/Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress achieved a clean sweep as it demolished rivals in the Asansol Lok Sabha seat where movie actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha trounced his nearest rival BJP's Agnimitra Paul by a massive margin of 303,209. Another high profile TMC candidate Babul Supriyo has won the prestigious Ballygunge constituency. In Asansol, former Union minister and popular veteran Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha is leading by garnering a massive 6,26,511 votes against BJP's Agnimitra Paul's 3,44,573 votes as of 2 pm. BJP had won the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. During the day West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee thanked voters from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat and Ballygunge Assembly Constituency for giving a decisive mandate to TMC candidates in both the seats, where by-polls were held.
In Ballygunge, TMC candidate singer-turned politician Babul Supriyo overtook CPI (M)'s Saira Shah Halim, gathering some 40,623 votes against Halim's 28,515 votes. Interestingly CPI(M) has overtaken BJP's Keya Ghosh who has till now managed to get just 8,094 votes, thus lending some credence to the Communist party's claim that they are on a revival path.
The by-polls, which took place on April 12, were necessitated as Supriyo resigned as the MP of Asansol after switching over to the TMC from the BJP, while state minister Subrata Mukherjee, who represented Ballygunge, died last year.
For the BJP, retaining the Asansol seat would be a challenge while it may spring a surprise in the Ballygunge constituency, a TMC bastion. While for TMC, it is an acid test to win the Asansol constituency for the first time and retain the Ballygunge seat. The bypoll to the Bochahan Assembly seat in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur was necessitated by the death of MLA Musafir Paswan, who had won on the ticket of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). The ruling Congress and opposition BJP are pitted against each other in the bypoll for the Khairagarh Assembly constituency seat in Chhattisgarh.
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The counting of votes began amid tight security arrangements, an election official said. Around 66.42 per cent and 41.23 per cent polling was recorded in the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency and the Ballygunge assembly seat, respectively, in the elections held on April 12. A total of 15 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman district while 2.5 lakh people could vote in south Kolkata's Ballygunge.
The TMC fielded yesteryear actor Shatrughan Sinha in Asansol, which has a substantial Hindi-speaking population. The BJP nominated Asansol Dakshin MLA Agnimitra Paul. The ruling Trinamool Congress has fielded Supriyo in Ballygunge, where he is pitted against BJP's Keya Ghosh and CPI(M)'s Saira Shah Halim. The Congress is also in the fray in both the seats.
The progress of both CPI-M and Congress this time seems better when compared to the results in the 2021 Assembly elections when the Congress and Left Front had a seat-sharing agreement. Even after that seat-sharing, which the Congress did not contest, the then CPI-M candidate Dr Fuad Halim got his deposit forfeited by getting a total of just 8,474 votes, which was just 5.61 per cent of the total votes polled.
In 2021, BJP's Loknath Chatterjee was in the second position with 31,226 votes, which was 20.68 per cent of the total votes polled. The winner then was Trinamool Congress candidate and former state panchayat minister, Subrata Mukherjee who got 1,06,585 votes, which was 70.60 per cent of the total votes polled. Mukherjee died in November last year which necessitated the by-polls in Ballygunge.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Supriyo, as a BJP candidate, defeated Trinamool candidate actress-turned-politician Moon Moon Sen by a massive margin of 1,97,637 votes and also secured a whopping 51.56 per cent of the total votes polled. After the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, Supriyo joined Trinamool Congress and also resigned as the Asansol Lok Sabha member that necessitated the by-polls in Asansol.
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with Agency inputs
