West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Express Photo by Partha Paul/File)
The Trinamool Congress on Thursday retained the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat and wrested the Noapara Assembly seat from Congress following the declaration of bypoll results for these two constituencies. Wife of late TMC MP Sultan Ahmed and TMC candidate Sajda Ahmed received a record 7,67,219 votes and won the Uluberia bypoll by a margin of 4,74,201 votes.
Interestingly, TMC received more than 2.5 lakh votes in Uluberia this time and also increased its winning margin compared to 2014 Lok Sabha election. Sultan Ahmed had won the Uluberia seat by a margin of more than 2 lakh votes. His wife Sajda Ahmed has managed to double the party’s winning margin this time.
The BJP meanwhile emerged second in both the seats pushing Left Front to the third position. In Uluberia, BJP received 2,93,018 votes which is about 1,60,000 more than what it had received in 2014. The CPM bagged 1,38,792 votes which is 2,30,000 votes less compared to 2014. In Noapara Assembly seat, TMC candidate Sunil Singh received 1,01,729 votes and won the bypoll by a margin of 63,018 votes.
In Noapara, BJP registered 38,711 votes, while CPM managed to get 35,497 votes. The Congress meanwhile came fourth in both the seats and lost its deposits in both places.
“The people of West Bengal are with the Trinamool Congress and this victory is for them. Today’s election results showed that we are way ahead of the Opposition which conspired to defeat us. CPM and Congress helped BJP to defeat the TMC. However, they could not succeed,” TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.
After winning the Noapara bypoll, TMC candidate Sunil Singh told reporters, “It is a great win and it shows people’s faith on TMC. There was a rumour that former TMC leader and now a BJP leader Mukul Roy would be a factor in Noapara seat but he could not make a difference in reality.”
Bypolls were necessitated following the demises of TMC MP from Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency Sultan Ahmed and Congress MLA from Noapara Assembly seat Madhusudan Ghosh. About 76 per cent polling was registered in Uluberia Lok Sabha seat and 75 per cent polling was registered in Noapara Assembly seat on January 29.