KOLKATA: The salient points of BJP’s defeat in all the four bye-elections held on July 10 in West Bengal were its failure to retain the three seats that it won in 2021 and the party’s inability to impress the Matua vote bank for which it promised Citizens Amendment Act (CAA).With this victory, the TMC’s tally stands at 215 in the 294-member assembly. It also enjoys the support of three BJP MLAs, who switched to the ruling party but are yet to resign from the House. The BJP’s official tally in the state assembly has come down to 71 from 77 in 2021.The ruling Trinamool Congress won all — Maniktala in Kolkata, Bagdah in North 24 Parganas, Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia and Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur. The BJP in 2021 had won three assembly seats except for Maniktala.The victory margins of TMC candidates are impressive enough: Supti Pandey (TMC) won from Maniktala by 62,312 votes, Madhuparna Thakur (Ranaghat) by 33,455 votes, Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj) with a margin of 55,077 votes and Mukutmani Adhikari (Ranaghat Dakshin) by 39,048 votes.Supti Pandey is the wife of former state minister Sadhan Pandey. The seat fell vacant following Sadham’s death in February 2022.Kalyan Chaubey, the BJP candidate for the seat, claimed hardly 8% voting in the by-polls, alleging that the rest were fake votes.The TMC swept the Matua belt winning both Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda. TMC’s Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, won, defeating BJP’s Binay Kumar Biswas. “It is the blessings of the people of Bagda. The citizens had decided beforehand that they would send the TMC candidate to the assembly,” Madhuparna said.The saffron camp, which enjoys the support of a large section of the Matua community, had won Bagdah, Raiganj and Ranaghat South in 2021 but the winners later joined TMC.The assembly segments of Haroa and Naihati in North 24 Parganas, Sitai in Cooch Behar, Taldangra in Bankura, Madarihat in Alipurduars, and Medinipur in Paschim Medinipur are still vacant since their respective MLAs contested and won the Lok Sabha polls.
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