Kolkata’s Bhabanipur Assembly constituency gave its verdict on Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee when she won a resounding victory in the Assembly bypoll by a record margin of over 58,000 votes against her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the Bharatiya Janata Party, thus making Banerjee a member of the state Legislative Assembly. This will allow her to continue as Chief Minister of West Bengal. The polling was necessitated after she lost the Assembly election in May to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari from the Nandigram seat and needed to win a byelection inside six months to find a place in the Assembly and continue as Chief Minister.
She won with a margin of 58,832 votes. Meanwhile, Priyanka Tibrewal secured 26,428 votes. The Bhabanipur Assembly seat was vacated by the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, paving the way for Mamata Banerjee to contest the bypoll.
As soon as the results of the Bhabanipur by-election came out on Sunday, the Trinamool leader said that she had won from all the wards unlike in 2016, when she got fewer votes in a few wards.
She said, “Everyone voted together, collectively. The Bhabanipur place is small, but the circle is very large. The people of Bhabanipur showed up today. The whole of Bengal was looking at Bhabanipur today.”
“Around 46% of people here (in Bhabanipur) are non-Bengalis. They all have voted for me. People of West Bengal are watching Bhabanipur, which has inspired me,” she added.
She also talked about the election result of Nandigram by saying, “There were many conspiracies. Those (cases) are pending in the court. Today, ordinary people have responded to all those conspiracies. I am indebted to them.”
Her rival candidate Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP erupted in anger after the results were declared. One of the reasons for her frustration was that she did not get a lead even from the Hindu dominated areas. Speaking to the media soon after the results were announced, she said, “I saw how they rigged the election. So I congratulate them for winning by rigging in all the wards.” “Congratulations to Didi, her organisation has done a very good job of rigging,” she added.