Massive victory for TMC.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress put up a thumping victory in the two bypolls that took place on January 29 – in Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency at Howrah district and Noapara Assembly constituency at North 24 Parganas district.
Sajda Ahmed, widow of two-times MP from Uluberia, Sultan Ahmed whose death had necessitated the bye-election there won with a record margin of 4,74,201 votes. Securing 7,67, 219 she emerged victorious while BJP stood at distant second with 2,93,018 votes.
The CPI(M) not only slipped to the third position with 1,38,792 votes but also lost about 2.3 lakh votes compared to 2014. Congress ended up at fourth position securing 23,108 votes. NOTA got 11,768 votes.
At Noapara too it was a landslide victory for TMC candidate Sunil Singh who received 1,01,729 votes defeating his nearest rival, BJP’s Sandip Banerjee who got 38,711 votes. CPI(M) got 35,497 while Congress had to be content with 10,523 votes in the fourth place.
TMC national secretary general Partha Chatterjee said that people had reinstated their trust on their party again. “TMC was, is and will be there. No one will be able to dent the popularity of TMC as long as it has people’s support,” he said. Talking about Mukul Roy, he said, “He has never been tested in any election. The increase in their vote share is owing to the CPI(M) and Congress lending them support under the table.”
BJP national secretary and former West Bengal state president Rahul Sinha said it should be an alarm bell for TMC. “This time we are second. Next time we will be first. TMC should treat this as an alarm bell. Had there been a free and fair election, the difference would not have been so much. People are realising that BJP is the only alternative,” Sinha said.
Congress state president Adhir Cowdhury blamed the CPI(M) for TMC’s win and BJP’s ascent. “At a time when people were accepting that the Cong-CPI(M) alliance was strong enough to tackle TMC, they pulled out. Our candidate at Uluberia was only pitched as formality as there is almost no organisational strength there of Congress and in Noapara too, in the last election our candidate won as an alliance candidate. Their withdrawal had led to TMC fragmenting the opposition votes so that their place is not threatened. My question is, even then why did the TMC have to resort to violence? Didn't they have confidence on themselves?” he told DNA.
None of the CPI(M) leaders wanted to comment on the poll results.
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