BJP wins Basirhat seat in Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal

KOLKATA: BJP wins Basirhat (South) seat, ends second to Trinamool in bypolls to Chowringhee seat When the BJP suffered a jolt in by-elections across the country, lotus bloomed in Bengal on Tuesday with the party’s victory in the Basirhat (South) Assembly seat and second position in Chowringhee, which is traditionally a non-Left seat and remained a Congress bastion till 2011.

Shamik Bhattacharjee of the BJP defeated Trinamool Congress candidate and footballer Dipendu Biswas in Basirhat (South) by a margin of 1,586 votes, while Trinamool candidate and actress Nayana Bandyopadhyay defeated the BJP’s Ritesh Tiwari by 14,344 votes in the Chowringhee seat where the CPM’s Faiz Ahmed Khan has lost his deposit by securing only 8,890 votes. Both Congress and the CPM candidates in Basirhat (South) have lost their deposits.

Describing its victory in Basirhat (South) as the beginning of the BJP’s electoral success in West Bengal, state party chief Rahul Sinha said the party had established itself as the alternative to the ruling Trinamool Congress and, in the 2016 Assembly elections, the Trinamool will have to face a tough challenge.

The Trinamool camp was upbeat with the Chowringhee victory. “Magic Modi has faded in 100 days,” said Trinamool MP Mukul Roy. “The Centre is using its agencies politically to malign our party, and the people have given a befitting reply to that.

People have reposed their faith on Mamata Banerjee. There is no place for communal politics in West Bengal,” he added with an indication to the CBI probe into the Saradha scam.

“The BJP was ahead from us in Basirhat (South) Assembly segment by about 32,000 votes as far as results of this year’s Lok Sabha elections are concerned. But we have managed to reduce their victory margin by just 1,586 votes and thus the BJP has lost more than 28,000 votes in this seat in this by-election,” Roy said. “We will win the Basirhat (South) seat in 2016 and Dipendu Biswas will be our candidate against the BJP.” This is, however, not the first time that the BJP has won an Assembly seat in Bengal. In 1999, Badal Bhattacharjee of the BJP had won the Ashokenagar Assembly seat in the same North 24Parganas district under which Basirhat (South) Assembly constituency falls. But in 1999, the BJP had an electoral alliance with the Trinamool.

Political circles here feel that opposition parties like Congress and the CPM have failed to extract electoral mileage over the ruling party by using the Saradha scam as a tool against Mamata Banerjee, even though both have launched campaign against the chief minister and even demanded her resignation.

Trinamool insiders indicated that Mamata was not at all pleased with her defeat in Basirhat (South). “A dozen of party heavyweights, ministers under the leadership of Mukul Roy had camped in Basirhat to ensure victory of Dipendu Biswas. But all our efforts have gone in vain .The party will analyse the result and try to identify the factors responsible for our defeat and none of our leaders will be spared by Banerjee if she finds fault on their part in running the campaign,” said a senior party leader.