North Bengal bypolls: BJP, TMC battle for Madarihat and Sitai seats
People in the Madarihat and Sitai Assembly segments of north Bengal will exercise their democratic rights tomorrow in by-elections.
As the counting for the bypolls on Asansol Lok Sabha seat and Ballygunge Assembly constituency continues in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in the state, is all set to strike victories in both the constituencies.
If the trend continues, this will be the first ever victory for the Trinamool Congress on the Asansol seat.
Till 12.30 p.m. on Saturday, Trinamool Congress candidate from Asansol, Babul Supriyo was leading by 10,851 votes from his nearest contender, CPI(M)’s Saira Shah Halim. However, the BJP candidate from Ballygunge, Keya Ghosh, who was at the fourth position after three rounds of counting till 10.30 a.m., improved her position after the completion of the 14th round and moved to the third position — leaving the Congress’s Kamruzzamn Chowdhury at the fourth position.
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In Asansol, till 12.30 p.m., the Trinamool Congress candidate, Shatrughan Sinha, was ahead of BJP’s Agnimitra Paul by over 1.35 lakh votes. CPI(M)’s Partha Mukherjee and Congress’s Prasenjit Patitundi were at the third and fourth positions respectively.
The by-poll on Asansol Lok Sabha seat was necessitated after former Union Minister Babul Supriyo resigned as the Lok Sabha MP after resigning from the BJP and joining the Trinamool Congress after 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls. Supriyo, as a BJP candidate, defeated Trinamool candidate actress-turned-politician Moon Moon Sen by a massive margin 1,97,637 votes and also secured a whooping 51.56 per cent of the total votes polled.
The Ballygunge Assembly seat by-poll was necessitated after the demise of former state Minister Subrata Mukherjee. The Trinamool leader had defeated his nearest contestant, BJP’s Loknath Chatterjee by a massive margin of 75,359 votes in 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.
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