Bengal Assembly by-polls: TMC trumps, BJP tanks
Trinamool Congress (TMC) bagged all the four Assembly seats that went to the by-elections on July 10. The results declared today also ensured that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sank from three to zero—it lost the seats of Bagda, Raiganj and Ranaghat Dakshin.
The ruling party in Bengal steamrolled the opposition, buttressing its dominance in the state’s politics. The nearest rivals defeated in all the four seats belonged to the BJP.
Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of TMC Rajya Sabha MP and Matua leader Mamatabala Thakur, won by a margin of 33,455 votes over Binay Kumar Biswas of the BJP in Bagda in North 24-Parganas district.
Mukut Mani Adhikari defeated the BJP’s Manoj Kumar Biswas by 39,048 votes in Ranaghat Dakshin, also in North 24-Parganas. He was the winner from the same seat in the 2021 assembly elections on a BJP ticket before switching sides.
In Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district, Krishna Kalyani—like Adhikari, the winner from the same seat on a BJP ticket in 2021, before switching sides for better political prospects—won by a margin of 50,077 votes over his nearest rival, Manas Kumar Ghosh of the BJP.
In the Maniktala assembly constituency in Kolkata, Supti Pande—wife of former state minister and long-time representative from the seat, Sadhan Pande—won by a handsome margin of 62,312 votes. Her nearest rival was again from the BJP (like in all the other seats)—veteran campaigner and former international footballer, and the current president of All India Football Federation, Kalyan Chaubey.
Not just for TMC, Saturday was a day of victory for its INDIA alliance partners as well. In the nine other assembly by-elections in six other states, Congress won four and the AAP and DMK, one each. The BJP’s tally was a paltry two, with the other going to an Independent.
