West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed victory in the Bhawanipore assembly bypoll after taking an unassailable lead against her BJP’s rival Priyanka Tibrewal.
At the of the round 21, Banerjee had polled 84,709 votes, while BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal could only receive 26,320 votes. CPI-M’s Srijib Biswas was placed at poor third with 4,201 votes.
Three seats namely Bhawanipore, Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur had gone to bypolls on 30 September. According to trends from the other two seats, the Trinamool candidates were leading in Samserganj and Jangipur.
Banerjee said, “I have won the Bhawanipore Assembly bypoll with a margin of 58,832 votes and have registered the victory in every ward of the constituency.”
#WATCH | West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greets her supporters outside her residence in Kolkata as she inches closer to victory in Bhabanipur Assembly bypoll pic.twitter.com/S1FlBYTXAG
— ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2021
“Since the elections started in Bengal, Central Govt hatched conspiracies to remove us (from power). I was hurt in my feet so that I don’t contest the polls. I am grateful to the public for voting for us & to ECI for conducting polls within 6 months,” ANI quoted Banerjee as saying.
Reacting to her defeat, Tibrewal said, “I am ‘Man of the Match’ of this game because I contested the election in Mamata Banerjee’s stronghold and got more than 25,000 votes. I will continue doing the hard work.”
I am 'Man of the Match' of this game because I contested the election in Mamata Banerjee's stronghold and got more than 25,000 votes. I will continue doing the hard work: Bhabanipur BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal pic.twitter.com/pAiQMutcHi
— ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2021
Mamata Banerjee had lost this year’s assembly polls to her former aide Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram. She must win the Bhawanipore seat to continue to occupy the chair of the state’s chief minister.
Banerjee’s rival has never an election as she had to face defeats both in the 2015 municipal polls and this year’s assembly elections. Lawyer by profession, Tibrewal recently wrote to the acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court seeking the court’s intervention to ensure that there was no post-poll violence in Bhawanipore.
Bhawanipore has been a traditional seat for Banerjee, who had decided to leave this constituency in this year’s assembly polls to contest from Nandigram.