New Delhi, (Samajweekly) West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress has won all three seats, including the crucial Bhabhanipur from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was contesting, and Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) won one seat where polling was held on September 30.
The Trinamool won Bhabanipur, Jangipur and Samserganj assembly constituencies, and the BJD has won Pipili.
Banerjee has defeated her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of BJP by a record margin of 58,832 votes from Bhabanipur. Earlier, Banerjee had won from Bhabanipur by a margin of 54,213 votes in 2011.
With this win, Banerjee secured her position as Chief Minister. Having lost to former aide Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram in the Assembly polls earlier this year, she had get elected to the Assembly within six months.
Banerjee secured 71.9 per cent of the total votes polled while Tibrewal secured 22.29 per cent of the votes. CPI-M candidate Shreejib Biwas managed to get only 4,201 votes.
“I am indebted to the people to Bhabanipur because they helped me win with a record margin. The most interesting thing is we didn’t lose in any of the wards. The polling in Bhabanipur has always been low and there was rain. Despite that people came out in numbers and gave us votes,” Banerjee said.
BJP’s Tibrewal said, “I am overwhelmed by the affection of people and commitment of my party leadership and workers who put in many times more effort than myself. I express my deep sense of gratitude.. I rededicate with greater vigour to be in service of people.”
In Jangipur, Trinamool’s Jakir Hossain defeated his nearest rival Sujit Das of the BJP by margin of 92,489 votes. Hossain got around 69 per cent while BJP’s Das received only 22.17 per cent.
In Samserganj, Trinamool’s Amirul Islam defeated Congress candidate Zaidur Rahaman by 26,379 votes. BJP’s Milan Ghosh was third, with just over 10,000 votes.
In Odisha, BJD’s Rudrapratap Maharathy’s won from Pipili by defeating BJP’ son Ashrit Pattnayak by 20,916 votes.
The BJD victory shows that the party is well prepared for next year’s panchayat and local bodies election and is still popular among masses. The BJD candidate got 53.6 per cent votes while the BJP’s Pattnayak got 42.04 per cent votes.
