KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is rejoicing the day with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) winning the Kaliaganj and Kharagpur Sadar seats in by-elections. Tapan Deb Sinha of TMC defeated his rival from the BJP- Kamal Chandra Sarkar. On the other hand, Congress and Left’s joint candidate Dhitasree Roy finished at the third position. The BJP had taken a lead of around 56,000 votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections from this seat and this is the first time the TMC has won this seat in Bengal.
Reacting to the win, Banerjee said- ‘This is the response of the people to BJP’s arrogance. It is clear now that we will win all three seats, including the Kharagpur seat, for the first time’ She said, the BJP had insulted the people of Bengal and they answered it back aptly.
Banerjee said the TMC’s victory in the assembly by-polls was in favour of ‘secularism and unity’ and a mandate ‘against the NRC’. She said the BJP wants to turn legal citizens of Bengal into refugees and send them to detention centers.
Criticizing the central government for failing to generate employment and pursuing politics over religion, Banerjee said the mandate in the recent elections in Maharashtra and Haryana where the BJP failed to get the majority and also the assembly by-elections in the state just shows how angry the people are with the BJP and its policies.
Lashing out at the BJP, the West Bengal CM also said that the BJP has been trying to win the race by its Bullish tactics which will not work and the people of India will give it a reply just like this time.
TMC candidate Pradip Sarkar won the by-poll to Kharagpur Sadar seat by defeating BJP’S Prem Chandra Jha by 20,788 votes.
The ruling party has also taken an unassailable lead in Karimpur with its candidate Bimalendu Sinha Roy leading over BJP’s Jay Prakash Majumdar by more than 23,000 votes.
The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant after sitting Congress MLA Pramatha Nath Ray died earlier this year. The other two seats went to polls as their MLAs-Trinamool’s Mohua Moitra and BJP’s Dilip Ghosh, were elected as members of parliament in May.
Violence was reported in Bengal when BJP’s Karimpur candidate Jay Prakash Majumdar was assaulted and kicked into bushes by the side of the road by TMC supporters during elections.