TMC makes it 3-0 in bypolls

Kolkata: Trinamul Congress on Tuesday won two Lok Sabha and one Assembly seats where bypolls were held on Saturday with record margins. These bypolls were held only 10 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his decision to scrap Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee described the massive victory of her party in Cooch Behar and Tamluk Lok Sabha and Monteswar Assembly  seats as “people’s revolt” against demonetisation.

Given the disarray in which the opposition parties have been in Bengal, TMC’s clean sweep was never in doubt. However, the huge margins of its victories may have surprised even the ruling party leaders. In Monteswar Assembly constituency in Burdwan, which used to be CPI(M) bastion, TMC candidate Saikat Panja defeated CPI(M)’s Md Osman Ghani Sarkar by 1.27 lakh votes. Only six months ago, in the Assembly election, TMC’s Sajal Panja had won the seat by 706 votes. The bypoll was necessitated after Mr Panja’s death. The TMC fielded his son Saikat who made history by winning securing a record vote share of above 77 per cent. The magnitude of his victory can be gauged from the fact that candidates of all opposition parties — CPI(M), BJP and Congress — lost their deposits.

TMC’s victory in Tamluk Lok Sabha seat in East Midnapore was equally spectacular. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Subhendu Adhikari had won the seat for the ruling party by nearly 2.5 lakh votes. The bypoll in Tamluk was necessitated due to Mr Adhikary’s resignation, who, on the CM’s advice, contested the Assembly polls and became the state transport minister. His younger brother and sitting Contai South MLA Dibyendu Adhikari contested the seat and doubled the victory margin by polling nearly 5 lakh votes. In six out of the seven Assembly segments in Tamluk, CPI(M) candidate Mandira Pande came second but in Nandigram, where 14 people were killed in 2007 during Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s rule, CPI(M) was relegated to the third position by the BJP.

TMC’s Partha Pratim Roy won Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat by a huge margin of above 4.13 lakh vote. Left Front’s Nipendranath Roy came a poor third by bagging just 87,363 votes, while BJP candidate Hemchandra Burman secured 3,81,134 votes. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections,  TMC’s Renuka Sinha had won the seat by a margin of 37,000 votes. The bypoll, which Mr Roy won by polling nearly eight lakh votes, was necessitated due to Ms Sinha's death.

Describing the bypolls as “farce”, Left Front chairman Biman Bose alleged that the TMC unleashed terror ahead of the polls and indulged in large-scale rigging. TMC’s vote share increased exponentially in these bypolls. Significantly, while CPI(M) and Congress were decimated, the BJP’s vote share saw an increase.