Mamata wrests Bhabanipur seat by 58,835 votes

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee on Sunday swept the Bhabanipur by-election, polling 58,835 votes more than the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Priyanka Tibrewal, a landslide victory that came months after the 66-year-old leader lost the Nandigram seat in the assembly election.

Tibrewal, who the BJP pitched at Banerjee’s main opponent, ended the race with only 26,428 votes against Banerjee’s 85,263, which meant that the West Bengal chief minister secured 71.9% of the total 118,580 votes (including 705 postal ballots) cast on September 30.

With a turnout of around 57%, it was the lowest showing at poll in Bhawanipore in 10 years, according to ECI.

“I want to thank the people of Bhabanipur and West Bengal, who were waiting for these results. The people of Bhabanipur have given a befitting reply to the conspiracy that was hatched to defeat me in Nandigram.

I don’t want to say much on a sub-judice matter. The counting is over, and we have won the seat,” Banerjee said while addressing mediapersons and party workers outside her house in the constituency’s Kalighat area.

The TMC won in all eight civic wards in the constituency, where a large section of the voters – 46% -- is non-bengali. Of this, the biggest section is formed by Hindus and Sikhs. Bengali and Hindi-speaking Muslims make up for around 20% of the constituency’s voters.

Banerjee, who often refers to the regions as a “mini-india”, said: “There are people from Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. For the first time, we have won in all the wards because of their support. I remember falling behind in two wards in the 2016 polls. I am thankful to all these people. The nation was watching this election alongside Bengal.”

While campaigning for the bypoll, Banerjee even coined the slogan “B for Bhawanipore, B for Bharat”.