Trinamool Congress today retained both Bongaon Lok Sabha and Krishnaganj Assembly seats with huge margins in the bypolls seen as a litmus test for its popularity in the wake of CBI arresting several of its leaders in Saradha scam and murmurs of dissidence.

The convincing victory of TMC candidate Mamatabala Thakur in the Bongaon (SC) Lok Sabha seat with a margin of more than 2,11,794 votes came as a big relief for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the bypoll was dubbed as a prestige fight after state minister Manjul Krishna Thakur quit here government and the party and joined BJP.

Manjul had accusing the TMC led-government of not doing enough for the Matua community, which forms a major chunk of the electorate in the constituency.

While Mamatabala Thakur secured 5,39,990 votes, her nearest rival CPI(M)’s Debesh Das received 3,28,196 votes

Manjul’s son Subrata Thakur, who was BJP’s candidate in Bongaon Lok Sabha seat, secured 3,14,119 votes.

The Congress stood fourth in this constituency.

The party retained Krishnaganj assembly seat by a margin of 37,033 votes with its candidate Satyajit Biswas securing 95,469 votes.

Biswas defeated his BJP rival Manabendra Roy, who secured 58,436 votes. The CPI(M) was relegated to the third position with 37,620 votes in contrast to the second position it held in the last assembly elections.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee termed the results as “a miracle” and said the party is “intact and strong”.

The Chief Minister, who was speaking to the media while touring Purulia district, said the results were people’s “rejection of the conspiracy by Delhi and a slanderous campaign by the BJP and a section of the media”.

In Bongaon, the Trinamool Congress substantially increased its victory margin compared to 2014 when it had won by 1,46000 votes. There was also a rise in the party’s vote in Krishnaganj seat.

The bypoll results also assume significance ahead of this years’s elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and about 80 municipalities across the state and the assembly polls to be held next year.

In the wake of the arrest of several TMC leaders and state minister Madan Mitra by the CBI in connection with the Saradha chitfund scam, the victory in both the seats will be a shot in the arm for Mamata Banerjee, who in recent months accused the BJP of trying to politically use the investigating agency to corner her party in West Bengal.

The leadership will be hoping that the result will also send out a message in the party rank and file both in rural and urban Bengal where several instances of dissidence have been witnessed in the recent past.

Since the victory of TMC in 2011, the party for the first time went to polls without the active participation of party’s general secretary Mukul Roy whose wings were recently clipped in an organisational reshuffle in TMC.

The defeat of BJP in both the seats came as a jolt to the party’s prospects in Bengal, where it has been aiming to increase its mass base after its good show in last Lok Sabha polls and by winnig the Basirhat South assembly segment in a bypoll last year.

The BJP being relegated to the third position comes as a disappointment for the party top brass, which had pinned high hopes on Bongaon seat.

The opposition Left Front, which has been the biggest casualty in these polls, has not only ceded much of its political ground but is fast losing its opposition space to the BJP in Krishnaganj.

Although CPI(M) was able to maintain its number two position in a neck and neck fight with BJP, its vote share dwindled significantly from 4,04,612 votes to 3,28,196.

The Congress which failed to make any impact in the polls was virtually reduced to a non-entity as it managed to secure only 29,000 votes in Bongaon and 4,500 votes in Krishnaganj.

BJP wins Mukhed bypoll in Maharashtra

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dr. Tushar Rathod, son of Govind Rathod, whose death last October necessitated the bye-election, has won the Mukhed Assembly seat by defeating his nearest Congress rival Hanumantrao Patil Betmogrekar by 47,248 votes, Election Commission officials in Nanded said.

Leading by 37,876 votes at the end of the 17th round of counting, Dr. Rathod consolidated his lead further, securing 1,00,319 votes. The Congress candidate polled 53,071 votes.

Dr. Rathod’s victory will increase the BJP’s strength from 121 legislators to 122 legislators in the Maharashtra Assembly.

TDP wins Tirupati bypoll with over one lakh vote margin

Hyderabad

Riding on a sympathy wave, TDP nominee M Suguna today won the bye-election to Tirupati Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh by a massive margin of over one lakh votes.

The counting of votes for the February 13 bypoll was taken up this morning and Suguna established a sizeable lead from the first round itself.

The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Suguna’s husband and TDP MLA M Venkataramana last December.

The election had become a virtually a one-sided affair as main opposition YSR Congress decided not to field its candidate as per a “practice” of letting the family members get elected unopposed in the event of death of a sitting MLA.

Congress, still smarting under the complete rout in last year’s elections, entered the fray in the bypoll. Its misery increased further as party nominee R Sridevi lost the security deposit.

Attributing the victory to her late husband’s popularity among people, the development efforts of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and help from Centre, Suguna said she would work for the temple town’s development and providing housing for the poor.

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