Published 14:25 IST, July 13th 2024
Bengal Bypoll: TMC's Krishna Kalyani Wins Raiganj Seat by Huge Margin
TMC candidate Krishna Kalyani on Saturday won the Raiganj assembly seat in a bypoll in West Bengal by a margin of over 50,000 votes over his nearest BJP rival
Raiganj, West Bengal: Continuing its winning streak a month after the party's resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Krishna Kalyani of the Trinamool Congress (AITC) has been elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Raiganj, securing a landslide victory against BJP’s Manas Kumar Ghosh by a margin of 50,077 votes. The by-election for this Assembly constituency was necessitated by the resignation of Krishna Kalyani, who has now been re-elected. The Raiganj constituency, situated in the Uttar Dinajpur district of the North Bengal region, is an urban, General category seat and is part of the Raiganj (General) Lok Sabha constituency.
Contesting Candidates
In the 2024 Assembly bypoll, there were a total of nine candidates:
This compares to the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections where twelve candidates were in the fray, including Krishna Kalyani (BJP), Agarwal Kanaia Lal (AITC), and Mohit Sengupta (INC).
Meanwhile, TMC has secured an unassailable lead in two other constituencies in West Bengal bypolls. Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Madhuparna Thakur won Bagda, while Mukut Mani Adhikari and Supti Pandey were leading in Ranaghat Dakshin and Maniktala respectively.
TMC's Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of TMC Rajya Sabha MP and Matua leader Mamatabala Thakur, won by a margin of 33,455 votes over her rival Binay Kumar Biswas of the BJP in the Bagda assembly seat in North 24 Parganas district.
Madhuparna Thakur got 107706 while Biswas secured 74251.
With this victory, the ruling party in West Bengal won Bagda after a gap of eight years.
TMC's nominee Supti Pandey was leading by 31,441 votes in Maniktala in Kolkata over her nearest rival Kalyan Chaubey of the BJP.
Mukut Mani Adhikari of the TMC was ahead of BJP nominee Manoj Kumar Biswas by 31,737 votes in Ranaghat Dakshin in North 24 Parganas.
The BJP secured Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Raiganj segments in the 2021 assembly polls.
The three seats fell vacant after MLAs Kalyani, Adhikari, and Biswajit Das of Bagda resigned from their posts to contest Lok Sabha polls on a TMC ticket.
Kalyani, who lost to BJP's Kartik Chandra Paul in the Lok Sabha polls, was re-nominated from Raiganj in the bypolls.
Adhikari, who was defeated by BJP's Jagannath Sarkar from the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, was in the fray again from the Ranaghat Dakshin assembly segment.
The Maniktala seat was won by the TMC in 2021 but became vacant after former state minister Sadhan Pandey died in February 2022.
Reacting to the party's performance in the bypolls, a state BJP leader said they would introspect.
"We will introspect the party's performance. But the TMC did not allow free and fair elections and there were a lot of irregularities. The ruling party had unleashed a reign of terror," BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
The TMC was quick to counter, dubbing the allegation as baseless.
"The people have rejected the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls in Bengal and the same thing has happened in the bypolls. The allegation that by-polls were not free and fair are just excuses to hide their own failures," TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.
The bypoll results are a shot in the arm for the TMC just a month after the party's performance in Lok Sabha polls when it had bagged 29 parliamentary seats, up from 22 in 2019.
The results are a fresh disappointment for the BJP after its dismal performance in the parliamentary elections when its tally came down to 12 from 18 in 2019.
Updated 14:25 IST, July 13th 2024