West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leads by 58,389 votes in Bhabanipur Assembly bypolls after the last round of counting, according to ANI. Celebrations have broken out outside the chief minister’s residence. Winning the Bhabanipur bypoll was critical for Mamata Banerjee as her position as West Bengal chief minister depended on it. Banerjee’s margin of 58, 389 votes from BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal is a record number for the constituency.
As Mamata inched closer to victory, Trinamool Congress supporters greeted an ever-busy ‘Didi’ who asked them to not crowd around the area.
Mamata’s Trinamool Congress emphatically defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Assembly elections held earlier this year. However, Mamata, who quit her home turf to take the battle to her protégé turned rival Suvendu Adhikari, lost the polls in Nandigram. Now, with nearly six months having passed since the Assembly polls, it was becoming critical for Mamata to quickly win an MLA seat to seal her position as West Bengal chief minister for the third consecutive term.
BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal has conceded defeat. In a zinger aimed at the chief minister, Tibrewal said that Mamata did not get the 1 lakh vote margin as she had promised. The Bhabanipur by-polls were conducted on Thursday. The seat saw 57% voter turnout amid torrential rainfall and tensions between BJP and the TMC.
Following her victory, Mamata Banerjee said, “I thank you all. Sisters, brothers, mothers, everyone from India. In 2016, I had seen that I got fewer votes in some wards. 46% of the population is non-Bengali and everyone has voted for me. I am happy that the people of Bhabanipur have shown faith in me. I am indebted to the people of Bhabanipur.”
This is the third consecutive time Mamata Banerjee has won from the Bhabanipur constituency after 2011 and 2016. This time, senior Trinamool leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay vacated his seat after the Assembly elections to let Mamata contest from her home turf when she lost to Suvendu Adhikari by a small margin in Nandigram.
