Kumaraswamy lauds Mamata Banerjee for winning Bhabanipur bypolls, calls BJP ‘stubborn’

Senior Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday congratulated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her big win in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency by-poll. Banerjee on Sunday registered her win in the elections beating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Priyanka Tibrewal by 58,832 votes. Kumaraswamy also hit out at the BJP for fielding a candidate in the election.

The JDS leader wished the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo in a series of tweets. "Hearty congratulations to West Bengal Chief Minister @MamataOfficial for registering a glorious and historic victory in the by-election from the Bhabanipur Assembly seat," Kumaraswamy tweeted. The former Karnataka, while praising the winning CM, also hit out at the BJP for displaying ‘stubborn’ character by fielding a candidate against Banerjee. He said that the BJP should have backed off as people’s mandate was in support of the TMC leader.

"The BJP should have helped in ensuring unopposed election of Mamata Banerjee by shunning political narrow mindedness. It's my personal view that such a gesture would have helped the BJP to retain its dignity," Kumaraswamy said. TMC walked into the by-polls with the confidence of having had a landslide win in the assembly election held five months ago.

Mamata Banerjee wins Bhabanipur

As per the official data, Mamata Banerjee won the Bhabanipur by-polls by 58,832 votes. Benerjee beat BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal who garnered 26,428 votes and CPI(M)'s Srijib Biswas, who landed 4,226 votes. Besides Bhabanipur, TMC's candidate Zakir Hossain won the Jangipur seat by a margin of 92,232 votes while Amirul Islam, TMC's candidate from Samsherganj seat, won by a margin of 26,111 votes. This is in line with Mamata Banerjee's claim made before the elections that the TMC will win all three seats. 

After registering a landslide victory in Bhabanipur, Banerjee on Sunday accused the Centre of 'hatching a conspiracy' to remove the TMC from power. Expressing gratitude to the public for voting for her, Banerjee said that the voters gave a befitting reply to the alleged conspiracy. The West Bengal CM also expressed her gratefulness to the Election Commission for conducting by-poll elections within the set period of six months. The by-polls were very crucial for Mamata as victory or loss in it was to decide her fate as Chief Minister. 

Image: ANI/ PTI