The ruling Trinamool Congress is all set for record victory at the Maheshtala Assembly by-poll with the party nominee Dulal Das leading by more than 28,000 votes at the completion of the ninth round of counting.
The TMC candidate has secured 47,293 votes, comfortably ahead of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Sujit Ghosh in whose favour 18,940 votes have been polled so far. The Left front nominee has secured 13,964 votes at the completion of ninth round of counting. Congress has not put up a candidate and has decided to back the Left Front nominee Prabhat Chowdhury in the by-poll.
While by-polls in West Bengal rarely spring a surprise and the TMC candidate was considered to have an edge over his rivals, the rise in the vote of the BJP and slide of the Left Congress vote is something to watch out for. The Left Front nominee in 2016 Assembly polls has secured 42.2% of the votes while in the counting for by-poll so far it has secured only 17% of the votes. The BJP which had got 7.7% of the votes in 2016 Assembly polls is seem to be emerging as the main Opposition to the TMC.
The by-poll were necessitated by the death of TMC MLA Kasturi Das, who had won the seat in the 2016 Assembly polls by a margin of 12,452 votes.
