Record bypoll win for Mamata

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Mamata Banerjee could not have asked for better Puja gifts. Wednesday brought “three cheers” for the chief minister of West Bengal. She not only won Bhowanipore Assembly seat by a record margin (78 per cent) and snatched Basirhat North Assembly seat from the Left Front, but also received a most favourable Singur ruling from Calcutta high court.

This is the first time that Ms Banerjee has been elected as an MLA. She had so far been winning all Lok Sabha polls since 1984 barring in 1989. Ms Banerjee’s victory in Bhowanipore seat was never in doubt. However, since the polling in the Bhowanipore bypoll on Sunday was extremely low (44.89 per cent), the Trinamul Congress was a little despondent. Ms Banerjee herself was unhappy with the voters’ turnout and it became evident when on Tuesday, she asked the people not to expect a big win in Bhowanipore. However, the result proved her wrong.
The total votes polled were 95,064. Ms Banerjee secured 73,635 votes while her nearest rival CPI(M)’s Nandini Mukherjee polled 19,422 votes. Ms Banerjee won by margin of 54,213 votes.
In the Assembly election in Bhowanipore, Trinamul Congress’ Subrata Bakshi had won by a margin of nearly 50,000 votes but at that time the polling percentage was 63 per cent.
Mr Bakshi resigned his seat to clear the decks for Ms Banerjee’s election. She had not contested the election and as per rule, she had to be elected as an MLA within six months of becoming chief minister.
The bypoll result shows that the Trinamul Congress’ vote share has increased by nearly 13 per cent and CPI(M)’s come down by over 7.5 per cent. The trend had become clear immediately after the counting of votes began in the morning.
In every round, Ms Banerjee kept on increasing her lead over Prof. Mukherjee by nearly 3,000 votes. By the end of 16th round, she had taken an unassailable lead of 30,494 votes. The final tally showed she had won by 54,213 votes.
Much before Bhowanipore, the result of Basirhat North seat was declared. Trinamul Congress candidate A.T.M. Abdullah defeated Left Front candidate Subed Ali Ghazi by 30,941 votes. In the Assembly election, this seat was won by senior CPI(M) leader Mostafa bin Quasem by nearly 4,000 votes.
The bypoll was necessitated in Basirhart North following Quasem’s mysterious death.
In just four months Trinamul Congress wrested the seat from arch rival CPI(M) whose tally of MLAs came down from 40 to 39.
Expressing her gratitude to the people, the chief minister said that her responsibilities have increased. “Despite such a low polling, the overwhelming support that the voters have extended to me is simply unbelievable. The 54,213 margin reflects the spontaneous zeal of the people of Bhawanipore. They have given their approval to my work as chief minister in the past four months,” she added.