Bhabanipur Bypoll Results: Mamata Banerjee cruises towards big win, leads BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal by over 24,000 votes

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was leading by nearly 24,000 votes after the first five rounds of counting in Bhabanipur, which went to by-election on September 30. As per the official EC data, the TMC chief bagged 28,355 votes against BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal (4,398 votes) and CPM’s Srijib Biswas (398 votes) after the sixth round of counting.

There will be 21 round of counting in Bhabanipur, a TMC stronghold, which Banerjee is contesting to continue as chief minister of West Bengal. The BJP has fielded Priyanka Tibrewal against the TMC chief while CPI(M) has pitted Srijib Biswas.

Babanipur, which went to the polls on September 30, saw a modest turnout of 53.32 per cent. The two other Assembly seats in the state, however, reported a higher turnout. Samserganj recorded 78.60 per cent voter turnout, while Jangipur 76.12 per cent till 5 pm, as per Election Commission data.

Voting was largely peaceful, and no major incident of violence or electoral malpractice was reported, EC officials said. The poll body said it received 97 complaints, of which 91 were quashed. Of these 97 complaints, 85 were related to the Bhabanipur bypoll.

Bypoll to Bhabanipur was necessitated following the resignation of Trinamool Congress MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay to facilitate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election to the assembly. Banerjee lost in Nandigram, as per the results of the assembly election declared by the EC in May. According to the constitutional provision, a person has to get elected within six months of taking oath as a chief minister or a minister. She took oath as chief minister for the third consecutive term on May 5.

In Samserganj, TMC candidate Amirul Islam was leading by 3,768 votes after the fifth round of counting. He secured 19,751 votes, while his nearest rival Zaidur Rahaman of the Congress received 15,983 votes. Jangipur’s TMC candidate Jakir Hossain was leading by 4,715 votes after the second round of counting. Hossain secured 9,213 votes and his nearest rival, BJP’s Sujit Das, got 4,498 votes.