Bhabanipur Bypoll: Mamata Banerjee Betters 2011 Performance

Kolkata: The must-win bypoll to Bhabanipur saw West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee beating her nearest rival by more than 58,300 votes.

Mamata polled 67,620 votes after the 17th round of counting, while BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal got 21,882 votes and Srijib Biswas of the CPI(M) secured 2,896.

Altogether, 21 rounds of counting were held in the constituency.

Bhabanipur, which was formed in 2011 after delimitation, has been a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Mamata’s Kalighat residence falls under this constituency.

“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,” said Tibrewal.

Mamata outdid her 2011 performance in the constituency when she had won with a 54,000-vote margin.

Mamata had dropped Bhabanipur to contest from Nandigram in East Midnapore district in the Assembly elections earlier this year but lost to her former confidant-turned-BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari by 1,956 votes.

Mamata also announced the names of candidates for three more bypolls in West Bengal.

“I will declare candidate names of the 3 seats for the state bypolls:

Shantipur: Brajakishore Goswami
Dinhata: Udayan Guha
Khardah: Sovan Deb Chattopadhyay

Gosaba name is not finalised. I will declare a little later,” she told the media.