Bengal bypolls: Over 14 pc average positive vote swing for Trinamool

Kolkata, Nov 23 (IANS) Trinamool Congress has witnessed an average 14 per cent positive vote swing in its favour in the bypolls.

The maximum positive swing in vote share in favour of the ruling party at Sitai in Cooch Behar district is at 26.66 per cent. In Sitai, Trinamool Congress candidate Sangita Roy won by a massive margin of 1,30,156 votes, defeating her nearest rival, BJP's Dipak Kumar Roy.

Roy's winning margin far surpassed that of the victory margin of her husband and the erstwhile Trinamool legislator, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, in the 2021 Assembly elections who had won by just 10,112 votes. In the bypolls Roy secured 76.08 per cent of the total votes polled up again from 49.92 per cent secured by her husband in 2021.

The second highest positive vote swing in favour of Trinamool Congress in the latest bypolls was from Haroa in North 24 Parganas district at 19.29 per cent over what it was in the 2021 state assembly polls.

Trinamool candidate Seikh Rabiul Islam won by the biggest margin in this round of bypolls, defeating his closest contestant and Left Front-supported All India Secular Front (AISF) candidate Piyarul Islam by a margin of 1,31,388 votes.

In 2021 Rabiul’s father Haji Nurul Islam got elected by a margin of 80,978 votes. In the bypolls Rabiul secured 76.63 per cent of the total votes polled up again from 57.34 per cent secured by his father in 2021.

The third highest positive vote swing for Trinamool Congress in the bypolls is from Madarihat in Alipurduar district at 17.49 per cent. There the ruling party candidate Jayprakash Toppo defeated his nearby BJP candidate Rahul Lohar by a margin of 28,168 votes, In the 2021 assembly elections, the erstwhile BJP candidate Maoj Tigga got elected by a margin of 29,685 votes defeating Trinamool Congress’s Rajesh Lakra.

Tigga was elected from Madarihat in the two successive Assembly elections in 2016 and 2021. In fact, this is the first-ever victory of Trinamool Congress from Madarihat. In the bypolls Toppo secured 54.05 per cent of the total votes polled up again from 36.56 per cent by Lakra in 2021.

In the Naihati assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district where Trinamool Congress witnessed a positive vote swing by 12 per cent from what it was in the 2021 state Assembly polls.

In the bypolls, Trinamool candidate Sanat Dey won from the Naihati Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, defeating his nearest contest Rupak Mitra of the BJP, by a margin of 49,277 votes up from the winning margin of erstwhile party candidate Partha Bhowmik of 18,885 in 2021.

In the bypolls, Dey’s share of total votes polled stands at 62.97 per cent up against Bhowmik’s 50 per cent in 2021.

In the Bankura district, where the positive vote swing in favour of Trinamool Congress had been comparatively lower at 5.98 per cent. Trinamool candidate Falguni Singhababu won by a margin of 33,856 votes over his nearest contestant and BJP candidate Ananya Roy Chakraborty, up from the victor margin of 34,082 of the erstwhile party legislator Arup Chakraborty in 2021.

In the bypolls, Singhababu’s share of total votes polled stands at 62.07 per cent up again from Chakraborty’s share of 46.1 per cent in 2021.

In the Medinipur Assembly constituency in West Midnapore district where the positive vote swing in favour of the ruling party in the bypolls had been just 2.72 per cent. Trinamool candidate Sujoy Hazra defeated his nearest contestant and BJP candidate Subhajit Roy by a margin of 33,996 vote up from the erstwhile party legislator June Malia’s victory margin of 24,397 votes.

In the bypolls, Hazra’s share of total votes polled stands at 53.44 per cent up again from Malia’s share of 50.72 per cent in 2021.

--IANS

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