West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was “indebted to the people of Bhabanipur” as the TMC supremo won the South Kolkata constituency by 58,832 votes.
Mamata Banerjee, who lost the Nandigram constituency to Suvendu Adhikari in the April-March assembly election, had to win this bypoll to retain the chief minister’s post.
As Mamata margin increased Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin congratulated TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for her ‘resounding victory’ in the Bhabanipur by-poll.
A jubilant Mamata Banerjee said the people of Bhabanipur gave a befitting reply to the conspiracy that was hatched in Nandigram.
“I thank you all…sisters, brothers, mothers, everyone from India. In 2016, I saw that I got fewer votes in a few wards. 46 per cent of voters are non-Bengali..everyone has voted for me,” Mamata Banerjee said.
Bhabanipur, often referred to as ‘Mini Bharat’ in West Bengal, has Gujaratis, Punjabis, Marwaris and Biharis accounting for 40 per cent of the population.
“Since the elections started in Bengal, the Centre hatched conspiracies to remove us (from power). I was hurt in my feet. I am grateful to the public for voting for us and to ECI for conducting polls within 6 months,” Mamata Banerjee said.
As the reports of Mamata Banerjee’s massive win poured in, TMC supporters hit streets across the state to celebrate with green “abir”.
Earlier 24 companies of Union government led central forces have been deployed at the counting centres and the entire area will be put under CCTV surveillance.
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.
The BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal, a lawyer who came to the forefront fighting the case of alleged post-poll violence and rapes in West Bengal, bagged only 25,000 votes.
“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,”
