West Bengal: TMC sweeps bypolls; Mamata Banerjee thanks voters
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee, thanked voters on Saturday as her party secured an easy win in the by-elections to the Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge Assembly seats. Interestingly, the TMC had fielded former members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in both constituencies. Candidates from the BJP and the CPI(M) were the primary opponents of the ruling party.
Why does this story matter?
These by-elections were vital for the Trinamool Congress since it was relying on two members who had previously switched sides from the BJP. The party had nominated actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha to contest from the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency against the BJP's Agnimitra Paul. Also, it had fielded Babul Supriyo, who recently left the BJP and joined the Banerjee-led party, from the Ballygunge Assembly constituency.
Salute to voters for reposing faith in us: Banerjee
"I sincerely thank the electors of the Asansol parliamentary constituency and the Ballygunge assembly constituency for giving decisive mandate to AITC [All India Trinamool Congress] party candidates (sic)," Banerjee tweeted on Saturday. "We consider this to be our people's warm Shubho Nababarsho [Happy New Year] gift to our Ma-Mati-Manush [Mother-Motherland-People] organization. Salute to the voters for reposing faith in us, yet again," she added.
Supriyo won from Ballygunge by over 20K votes
Former Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who joined the TMC in September, was declared the winner of the Ballygunge Assembly seat by the Election Commission of India (ECI). He reportedly secured 51,199 votes and handily defeated Saira Shah Halim of the CPI(M) who received 30,971 votes. Meanwhile, the BJP's Keya Ghosh garnered just 13,220 votes and Kamruzzaman Choudhury of the Congress got only 5,218 votes.
This result is a slap on the BJP: Supriyo
"Didi (Banerjee) guided us to work at grassroots levels. I dedicate my win to CM Mamata Banerjee and Ma-Mati-Manush," Supriyo was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. "This result [of the by-elections in West Bengal] is a 'tamacha' [slap] on the BJP for the way they demean Bengalis. This trend is the result of the hard work of TMC workers," he said further.
TMC breaks Asansol jinx with Sinha's victory
Meanwhile, Sinha defeated the BJP contender Paul by a wide margin in the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency. It seemed an easy win for Sinha and was his first electoral triumph after leaving the BJP in 2019. With this victory, the Banerjee-led TMC has also broken the Asansol jinx as the party had never won from this Lok Sabha seat before.
