BJP Is Getting Paid Back For Its Arrogance: CM Mamata Banerjee On West Bengal Bypoll Result

Buoyed by the Trinamool Congress’s victory in Kaliaganj assembly seat in bypoll, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is getting paid back for its ‘arrogance’ and for ‘insulting’ the people of the state. She also dedicated the party’s victory to the people of the state. “We dedicate this victory to the people of Bengal. The BJP is getting paid back for its arrogance of power and for insulting the people of Bengal,” she told a TV channel.

Tapan Deb Sinha of the Trinamool has won the Kaliaganj seat by defeating his nearest rival Kamal Chandra Sarkar of the BJP by 2,304 votes, Election Commission officials said.  The Trinamool is also leading in two other assembly segements, Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur, by 15,000 and 28,000 votes respectively.

Trinamool chief also accused the Congress and CPI(M) of helping the BJP in West Bengal.

Counting of votes began at 8 am on Thursday amid tight security in three Assembly seats of West Bengal where by-polls were held on November 25, Election Commission officials said.

Around 78 per cent of over seven lakh electorate had cast their votes in the by-polls to Kaliaganj, Karimpur and Kharagpur Sadar Assembly seats where 18 candidates were in the fray.

BJP state vice-president and the party's candidate in Karimpur, Jay Prakash Majumdar, was assaulted during polling in the constituency.

The Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur seats fell vacant after the general elections as the sitting MLAs of the two seats Dilip Ghosh (BJP) and Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress) had contested and won Lok Sabha seats. The by-poll at Kaliaganj was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Parmathanath Roy.

Congress nominee Dhitashree Roy, supported by the CPI(M), is pitted against Trinamool Congress's Tapan Deb Sinha and BJP's Kamal Chandra Sarkar at Kaliaganj.

In Karimpur the CPI(M)-Congress candidate Gholam Rabbi is in the reckoning against Majumdar and the ruling Trinamool Congress's Bimalendu Singha Roy.

In Kharagpur Sadar the contestants are Prem Chandra Jha of BJP, Chittaranjan Mandal of the Congress-CPI(M) alliance and Pradip Sarkar of the Trinamool Congress.

With PTI Inputs