The State’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and the BJP won one seat each in West Bengal by-elections paving the way for the latter’s entry in the Assembly after 15 years.
While BJP’s Shamik Bhattacharya defeated AITC candidate and former Indian soccer captain Dipendu Biswas by 1,586 votes at Basirhat Dakshin, on the Chowringhee seat Nayna Bandopadhyay defeated BJP’s Ritesh Tiwari by 14,344 votes allowing the ruling party to retain the seat.
Stating that the CPI (M) and the Congress were obliterated from West Bengal, State president of the BJP said the real battle in the 2016 Assembly elections would be between his party and the ruling AITC.
AITC general secretary Mukul Roy said people have ‘withdrawn’ the support to the BJP as they showed in the general election in May. “Mr. Modi’s magic has faded in the 100 days since he came to power,” he said. While the BJP had led by 32,000 votes in Basirhat Dakshin in the Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Roy said, the AITC has recovered 28,000 votes now.
“We must view these by-polls in the context of Lok Sabha poll results. We were trailing in both seats in May. People have given their support to the surge of development started by the State government,” he said.
While the by–polls turned out to be a contest between the AITC and the BJP, the Left Front and the Congress scrambled for the scraps.
CPI(M) candidate from Chowhringee Faiyaz Ahmed Khan who got 8,890 votes could not save his deposit.
In Basirhat Dakshin, the CPI(M)’s Mrinal Chakraborty got 24,884 while Congress candidate Asit Majumdar had to satisfy with 21,958 votes. Congress candidate in Chowringhee Santosh Pathak, however, performed better by obtaining about 24 percent of the votes polled.