TMC supporters wear T-shirts with Mamata Banerjee's photo on the back to celebrate the party's win in bypolls. (Express Photo Shashi Ghosh) After the BJP drew a blank in three Assembly bypoll seats on Sunday, its state headquarters in central Kolkata wore a deserted look.
TMC workers were seen celebrating the landslide victories near Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat.
Stating that the party accepts the people’s verdict in the bypolls, the BJP in a statement said, “The outcome of the three Assembly bypolls in West Bengal is not in line with our expectation, but we accept it gracefully.” It argued that post-poll violence “fear” was a reason behind TMC’s victory.
While Mamata emerged victorious with a record margin of 58,832 votes from Bhabanipur, her BJP rival Priyanka Tibrewal managed to bag more than 25,000 votes and awarded herself the “man of the match” prize for contesting the election Mamata’s stronghold.
“I am the ‘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 hard work,” said Tibrewal after the loss.
She wrote a letter to the Chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, seeking his intervention to prevent post-poll violence in three constituencies. The letter was also forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and two top police officers of Kolkata.
The BJP criticised the Election Commission for “doing nothing to allay fears of voters”.
“The polls, particularly in Bhabanipur, were marred by rampant fake voting. The BJP candidate even apprehended such voters… (who) were allowed to escape under supervision of Kolkata police under political pressure from the TMC. Despite the electoral outcome, the gross discontent among people in Bhabanipur and the overall state of affairs in Bengal, from dilapidated roads, crumbling infrastructure to overflowing drainage system, worsening law and order situation, under Mamata Banerjee remains a cause for deep concern,” read the BJP statement.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said the party would perform well in the upcoming four bypoll seats “We all know only 57 per cent voters turned out to vote. A major section of people couldn’t vote… But we got a good number of votes…”
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