The Trinamool Congress on Saturday swept the West Bengal bypolls by winning all four seats. Interestingly, three of these four were with BJP earlier which had managed to take a lead on the seats in the Lok Sabha polls too.
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who returned from Mumbai on Saturday, called it a victory of the INDIA bloc. “This is a big gain for us as three seats were with BJP and now it’s clear that nationally, voters are not in favour of NDA. People have voted for INDIA bloc. The BJP started ‘agency raj’ again and thus common people have ousted them.”
TMC winners of both Raiganj and Ranaghat — Krishna Kalyani and Mukut Mani Adhikari — were MLAs from BJP previously and were defeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
If the Lok Sabha poll results are analysed, in Matua-dominated Bagdha seat, BJP won with a lead of more than 20,000 votes. In Ranaghat South seat, BJP was ahead by more than 36,000 votes, while in Raigunj, the margin was above 46,000. It was only in Manicktala that the TMC had an edge.
However, BJP insiders say that the bypoll results — which come just a little more than a month after the Lok Sabha polls — are concerning. BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya said: “In bypolls, voters generally vote for the ruling party but we have to really see why we lost.”
Some, though, accused the TMC of rigging the polls. Kalyan Chaubey, BJP’s Manicktala candidate, said: “They [TMC] have done rigging everywhere. If people could have voted freely, we would have won.”
Sources say one of the reasons behind the BJP’s loss was demotivated workers as the party and cadre were confident of performing well in the Lok Sabha elections but could secure only 12 seats, breaking their morale.
BJP has been winning the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, a stronghold, since 2019. It performed well in the 2021 assembly polls too, sweeping the seat once again in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The presence of Matua voters was also in favour of BJP but despite that, the TMC won the seat by more than 38,000 votes.
Bagdha too has been BJP’s fiefdom since 2019 but in the bypolls, Shantanu Thakur’s cousin and TMC MP Mamata Bala Thakur’s daughter Madhuparna Thakur won by more than 33,000 votes.
In Raiganj, Krishna Kalyani — a BJP MLA — switched to TMC and contested polls in 2024 against the party. He was defeated by more than 45,000 votes then but, this time, he contested from Raiganj and won by over 49,000 votes.
TMC, for now, is in an upbeat mode as their martyrs’ day is on July 21 and Mamata Banerjee has said the party will also celebrate their victories in the Lok Sabha and bypolls.
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