West Bengal bypoll results: Saffron surge bags four assembly seats in Mamata's citadel

In consonance with its surge in Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday also recorded a significant stride as it bagged four of the eight Assembly seats, where byelections were held following one death and seven resignations early in the year, according to the Election Commission sources. While the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) managed wins in three seats, the Congress grabbed one.

In Bhatpara, where polls were disrupted due to widespread violence on May 19, Trinamool Congress candidate Madan Mitra was defeated by BJP's Pawan Kumar Singh by a margin of 23,104 votes. Singh is the son of BJP’s Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency candidate Arjun Singh, who vacated the Bhatpara seat before filing nomination for the parliamentary election. Miffed at being denied a ticket by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Bhatpara MLA left the Trinamool Congress and switched to the BJP following the announcement of the general elections 2019.

In Uluberia, Trinamool Congress' Idris Ali defeated his nearest rival Pratyush Mandal of the BJP by 15,791 votes. Ali, an AITC MP from Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency, was denied a ticket from his sitting seat by Banerjee. He was instead fielded from Uluberia Assembly seat by the TMC supremo.

BJP's Neeraj Tamang Zimba won the Darjeeling assembly bypolls after defeating Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) chairman Binoy Tamang by a margin of 46,538 votes. Tamang was fighting as an Independent candidate with AITC support.

Joyel Murmu of the BJP bagged the Habibpur Assembly seat, where Trinamool Congress fielded Amal Kisku as its candidate. In Islampur, AITC candidate Abdul Karim Chowdhury defeated S Mandal of the BJP by around 30,000 votes.

Congress's Shafiul Alam Khan won the Kandi Assembly seat by defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Goutam Roy by 21,120 votes. Khan got 79,698 votes, while Roy managed 58,578.

In Krishnaganj Assembly seat, BJP’s Ashish Kumar Biswas emerged victorious against Prathama Ranjan Bose of the Congress, while in Nowda, Sahina Mamtaz Begum (Khan) of the AITC defeated Sunil Kumar Mondal of Congress by a margin of 33,822 votes.