The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is celebrating a twin victory in West Bengal bypolls, winning by a record margin in Nandigram and sweeping even the Muslim-dominated Rejinagar.
With the Opposition fumbling and fragmented, the scene has become almost one-sided since the BJP swept the Assembly polls earlier this year. The ruling party has now won both bypolls, Nandigram and Rejinagar.
Speaking to NDTV, BJP leader Shishir Bajoria said, “BJP wouldn’t have been in power with such a decisive majority had we not won minority support in the state polls. This year, it was reduced to only nine seats in Murshidabad, while the BJP won eight. “I take a pledge to take this state to the top in five years. Since the BJP came to power, we witnessed a violence-free bypoll. People have understood that this government works for development. they also add political weight to Adhikari, who cited the results as a breakthrough in minority votes for the BJP While the bypoll results reflect BJP’s dominance on the ground. They have responded to that. This ‘anti-minority’ tag is an Opposition myth to mislead voters. We are delivering our promises after coming to power, and that’s why the minority support has increased further. For long they have been victims of appeasement politics in Bengal, and now they see development. The AJUP got two seats and the Congress three. Now the BJP has as many seats as the TMC, at nine, at the cost of Humayun Kabir’s AJUP.
In Nandigram, BJP candidate Hasi Rani Rath secured 1,64,427 votes, while Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, out on bail in a murder case, finished second with 41,674 votes. The winning margin was 1,22,753 votes, exceeding the margin with which Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari won this seat five months ago. “Around 60% of Muslims in Rejinagar have voted for us, and 80% of Muslims in Nandigram have voted in our favour. I had spoken about a ‘friendship day’ on October 6. Congress’ Nandigram candidate Milan Pradhan, who spent 11 out of 16 days of the main campaign in jail, walked out before the counting was completed and said, “This is a black day; voting did not happen, the vote was looted and snatched away, making it a black day for the democratic system. The TMC at one time dominated Murshidabad district, in which Rejinagar falls, even winning won 20 of the 22 assembly seats in the district in the previous elections.
We will also win the civic polls after Durga Puja,” said Adhikari at the state secretariat. I am happy,” he said. However, the EC doesn’t provide data on votes polled according to religion. Political analyst and Jadavpur University professor Ishani Naskar says the bypoll results can be seen as “an early indicator of how people perceive BJP’s performance in government”. The Congress, though it outperformed Mamata Banerjee’s TMC and the Left, called it a “black day” otherwise.
