Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal won all four assembly seats that went to by-polls on July 10.
The by-polls were held in four assembly constituencies, including Maniktala in Kolkata, Bagdah in North 24 Parganas, Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia and Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2021 had won three assembly seats except for Maniktala in north Kolkata, which the TMC had won.
North Kolkata has been a TMC stronghold for a long time. “I really feel disheartened for the BJP. They lose every time from Maniktala. I am telling this from the core of my heart,” Supti Pandey, TMC candidate from Maniktala who won by 62,312 votes, told media persons.
The TMC fielded Supti, wife of former state minister Sadhan Pandey from the seat which had fallen vacant following the demise of Sadhan in February 2022. Sadhan had won the seat by 20,238 votes.
Kalyan Chaubey, the BJP candidate for the seat, claimed that only seven to eight per cent of people could vote in the by-polls, alleging that the rest were fake votes.
The TMC also swept the Matua belt winning both Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda. TMC candidate Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, won the seat by 33,455 votes, defeating BJP’s Binay Kumar Biswas.
“It is the blessings of the people of Bagda. The citizens had decided beforehand that they would send the TMC candidate to the assembly,” Bala Thakur said.
The saffron camp, which enjoys the support of a large section of the Matua community, had won Bagdah, Raiganj and Ranaghat South in 2021 but the winners later joined TMC.
The turncoat legislators, Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat South and Biswajit Das from Bagdah, resigned from the legislative assembly ahead of the recent Lok Sabha elections to contest the Raiganj, Ranaghat and Bongaon seats, respectively, but were defeated by BJP.
The TMC did not field Biswajit Das but Krishna Kalyani and Mukutmani Adhikari were nominated again from Raiganj and Ranaghat South respectively.
“BJP has used the Matuas. They were promised citizenship but CAA was brought in to snatch away their rights. Now the Matuas have turned their face off. They are no longer with the BJP,” Adhikari, who won by 39048 votes, said while speaking to reporters.
The TMC also wrested the Raiganj assembly seat for the first time. Kalyani won by 55,077 votes, defeating BJP candidate Manas Kumar Das.
“Usually, the ruling party in West Bengal wins the by-elections. This is the tradition of the state. The BJP had to face guns and bombs and could not resist the attack on its vote bank. Despite repeatedly telling the ECI (Election Commission of India) about political violence, we saw how the central forces were not utilised. We have seen much worse. We will fight back,” Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson, told media persons.
Even though the BJP had set a target to win more than 200 seats in the 2021 assembly elections, it could only bag 77 seats. The TMC returned to power for the third time in a row with 213 seats. While, in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s seats dropped to 12 from 18 in 2019.