Mamata lands a landslide in Bhabanipur, TMC sweeps Shamsherganj and Jangipur Assembly polls

Mamata Banerjee has won the Bhabanipur bypoll with a margin of 58,389 votes against her nearest rival BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal from Bhabanipur. Many say, Bhabanipur Assembly constituency can truly be construed as a mini-Bharat. Mamata Banerjee's hands down win from the seat has literally ushered her to the national centre stage, writes ETV Bharat's Dipankar Bose.

Kolkata (West Bengal): Earlier this year, it was “Bangla nijer meye ke chaye” (Bengal wants its own daughter). From the month of August, it turned to “Bhabanipur nijer ghorer meye kei chaye” (Bhabanipur only wants its own daughter). As Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal and Trinamool Congress supremo emerged victorious in the Bhabanipur Assembly bypoll, the slogans ringing loud in Bengal are gradually changing. The latest from the Trinamool camp is – “Bharat nijer meye ke chaye” (India wants its own daughter).

Literally outsmarting both the opposition BJP and the CPI(M), Mamata Banerjee emerged as the biggest winner from Bhabanipur, especially after losing the Nandigram Assembly elections earlier this year by a slender margin, to Suvendu Adhikari. Ahead of the annual autumn festival of Durga Puja in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee landed with an all-time high margin. Registering a winning margin of 58,832 votes, the Trinamool supremo virtually toppled her own record of 2011, when she decimated the Left Front's 34-year stint at the hustings.

Mamata Banerjee had won the Bhabanipur bypoll by 54,213 votes in 2011 after the seat was vacated by her trusted lieutenant Subrata Bakshi. In 2016, Mamata witnessed a slump as her winning margin from Bhabanipur plummeted to 25,301 votes. In three years the Lok Sabha elections happened and Trinamool Congress candidate from South Kolkata seat, Mala Roy, secured a lead of 3,186 votes from Bhabanipur Assembly segment. Earlier this year when Mamata opted for Nandigram, another of her trusted aides and state minister Shovandeb Chattopadhyay contested the Assembly elections from Bhabanipur and won by 28,719 votes. Mamata Banerjee, the third time chief minister of West Bengal, maintained her winning streak from Bhabanipur and made it a hattrick.

But, what happened to the opposition BJP, which had tried its luck in fielding Priyanka Tibrewal against Mamata? Being a cosmopolitan seat as it can get, Bhabanipur does have a very large concentration of people belonging to the Gujarati, Marwari, Sikh communities as well as others having their roots in neighbouring Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. And that was what the saffron party wanted to cash in on while finalising the name of Priyanka. The fact that Trinamool could not register a lead from two crucial Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) wards, those of 70 and 74, during the polls earlier this year even though it won Bhabanipur, was also a factor to ponder over. For both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.

In the end, Priyanka Tibrewal had to remain contented with a little over 26,000 votes. For the record, the CPI(M) candidate from the seat Srijeeb Biswas, got 4,201 votes, while the Congress decided against contesting the by-election. Undoubtedly, the entire Congress and Left Front vote share yet again consolidated against the BJP and clubbed together with the Trinamool Congress votes, dishing out one of Mamata's biggest electoral wins.

The underbelly of this emphatic win of Mamata Banerjee has presented the fact that for the first time, Trinamool Congress has not lost a single KMC ward to its opposition. Many say, Bhabanipur Assembly constituency can truly be construed as a mini-Bharat. Mamata Banerjee's hands down win from the seat has literally ushered her to the national centrestage. The 'Khela Hobe” (game is on) slogan has yet again rung out loud and clear in Bengal with Trinamool Congress ensuring victory from Shamsherganj and Jangipur, the two other seats, which went to the polls alongside Bhabanipur.

With the bleeding of the BJP legislative party continuing and with the grapevine doing the rounds that four more MLAs are gearing up to switch sides and join Trinamool Congress, it is now a tough challenge for the saffron party to keep its flock together and to also ensure that Mamata's juggernaut doesn't infect the neighbouring state of Tripura, which will be going to the polls next year. The BJP's hands are literally full in the east.

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