Trinamool Congress Sweeps Byelections, Mamata Banerjee Says BJP Politics Of Arrogance Rejected

New Delhi/Kolkata:

The Trinamool Congress today celebrated a three-on-three score in assembly by-polls in West Bengal as it established a clear lead in all three seats, including two the party hadn’t won in years. “The BJP’s arrogance has cost them,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

The Trinamool is set to win the Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj seats for the first time.

The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant after sitting 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.

In Kaliaganj, Tapan Deb Singha has won the bypoll to the Kaliaganj Assembly seat in Bengal, defeating Kamal Chandra Sarkar of the BJP by more than 2,000 votes.

Kaliaganj was a challenge for the Trinamool as it falls in Raiganj, the parliamentary seat that BJP won in May this year by a huge margin.

The Trinamool is also leading in Karimpur, vacated by Mahua Moitra.

The counting of votes began at 8 am. The results will be declared amid a strain between the supporters of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP over an attack on a BJP candidate during voting on Monday.

There was a huge outcry when the BJP’s Karimpur candidate, Jay Prakash Majumdar, was heckled, assaulted and kicked into bushes by the side of the road by Trinamool supporters during polling.

The three seats were held by different parties – Karimganj belonged to the Trinamool, Kharagpur Sadar to the BJP and Kaliaganj to the Congress.

The bypolls were conducted six months after the BJP pulled off a stunning result in the national election in West Bengal. After a sustained onslaught by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP tally in the state rose from 2 to 18, while that of the ruling Trinamool Congress plummeted to 22.

With 18 months to go for Assembly elections in the state, the Trinamool hopes the bypolls indicate a trend.

All the four major political parties — the Trinamool, BJP, Congress and the Left– will hope for a victory in these elections and carry the momentum into the state polls.