Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers celebrate the progress of the party during the counting of votes for all the four Assembly seats in West Bengal, in Nadia.
TMC and BJP led NDA won the assembly on Tuesday by-election In West Bengal and Assam, steaming opposition, which undoubtedly fell to the ruling parties run by Mamata Banerjee and Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress was strongly supported by voters as it won all four seats, including two snubbed by the BJP, which humbly surrendered after a credible performance in the March-April assembly elections, when it won 292 seats. Won 77 out of The seats where voting took place.
TMC candidates in Dinhata, Gosaba, Khardaha and Shantipur not only got over one lakh votes, but the party’s vote share was also 75.02 per cent as against BJP’s 14.48 per cent.
Udayan Guha, who won the Dinhata seat vacated by Union Minister of State for Home, Sports and Youth Affairs Nishith Pramanik by a margin of over 1.64 lakh votes, got 84 per cent votes against his BJP rival Ashok Mandal’s 11.31 per cent.
Trinamool Congress’ Subrata Mandal defeated his BJP rival Palash Rana in Gosaba by over 1.43 lakh votes, while the saffron party’s candidate got 9.95 per cent votes. Braj Kishore Goswami of TMC defeated Niranjan Biswas of BJP by 64,675 votes from Shantipur. Mamata Banerjee’s confidante Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who had earlier vacated the Bhawanipur seat to contest the bypoll, defeated his BJP rival Joy Sinha by 93,832 votes from Khardaha.
The TMC’s victory not only spells further humiliation for the BJP in the general election, but Banerjee’s claim to lead an already strong anti-BJP opposition alliance, if it is formed before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“My heartiest congratulations to all the four winning candidates! This victory is a victory for the people, as it shows how Bengal will always choose development and unity over propaganda and hate politics. With the blessings of the people, we can take Bengal to greater heights. Promise to take away!” Mamata Banerjee said in a Twitter post.
Taking a jibe at the BJP’s defeat, his nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee tweeted, “True cracker free Diwali. Wishing the people of @BJP4India a very Happy Diwali!”
West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar blamed the Trinamool Congress’s “reign of terror” for the defeat.
“The difference of more than one lakh in the by-elections is unimaginable. We can very well understand the kind of terror the ruling party has unleashed to prevent people from voting freely and fairly,” he said.
The resounding victory is expected to add more shine to Banerjee’s personal charisma and public appeal as the TMC tries to expand from West Bengal to new regions such as Goa and Tripura for the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Though Banerjee dealt a heavy blow to the BJP in West Bengal, a charismatic Himanta Biswa Sarma led the NDA to a power-packed performance in neighboring Assam, winning all five seats with its ally UPPL.
BJP won Bhabnipur, Mariani and Thaura seats, while UPPL won Gosaigaon and Tamulpur seats in Bodoland Territorial Area. All the NDA candidates won by an impressive margin. The BJP had fielded Phanidhar Talukdar, who had left the AIUDF after being elected to the assembly in the general election.
The victory of all three came in the light of Sarma’s astute political understanding as the BJP’s pointsman across the Northeast.
The BJP and its ally UPPL got about 54 percent of the votes.
“Today’s victory is both humbling and reassuring and we promise to continue the path of development as per the vision of Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi. My gratitude to the people and our worker.
Sarma wrote in a series of tweets, “@TheUPPLOfficial is an important partner of NDA and today’s victory highlights the enormous faith of the people in the vision of Hon’ble PM @narendramodi, who is steadfast in his commitment to take Assam to glorious heights.” Huh.”
Barring their crushing defeat in West Bengal, the BJP and its allies were on song elsewhere in the East and North East, where bypolls were held on October 30.
The Congress on Tuesday won Mandi Lok Sabha and all three assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, where bypolls were held on October 30, in a blow to the ruling BJP, with CM Jai Ram Thakur saying the party would introspect. The Mandi seat, which was earlier held by the BJP, was won by Pratibha Singh, wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh.
A state in Eastern India
In Bihar, where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) was locked in a prestige battle with Lalu Prasad’s RJD, the ruling party retained both the seats. It won the Kusheshwar seat by a margin of over 12,000 votes and Tarapur by over 3,000 votes, which lasted till the last moments of counting.
Meghalaya
The Meghalaya Democratic Alliance led by the National People’s Party won all three seats in the state. Chief Minister Konrad Sangma’s NPP, an ally of the BJP, snatched the Rajbala and Mawringneng seats from the Congress, while the United Democratic Party, its ally in the MDA government, won Mawphlang.
Mizoram
The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), which is also an ally of the NDA, won the by-election to Mizoram’s Tuiriyal Assembly seat from the opposition Zoram People’s Front.
Maharashtra
To boost the morale of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, Congress candidate Jitesh Antapurkar won the Deglag-Biloli assembly by-election in Nanded district by a huge margin. Out of the total 12 candidates for the SC reserved seat, MVA candidate Antapurkar got around 108,840 votes, while his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party rival Subhash Sabane got 66,907 votes and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Dr. Uttam Ingole left far behind. In the field with the remaining 9.
Madhya Pradesh
The BJP won the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh by a margin of over 80,000 votes in the by-elections held on Tuesday. BJP’s Dnyaneshwar Patil defeated his nearest rival Raj Narayan Singh of Congress. Congress won the Raigaon Assembly by-election in Madhya Pradesh by a margin of 12,096 votes. Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress had fielded women candidates – Pratima Bagri, daughter-in-law of former BJP MLA Jugal Kishore Bagri – whose death necessitated the election, respectively, and Kalpana Verma.
with PTI input
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