Trinamool Congress wrested the Madarihat Assembly seat from the BJP in the bypoll, a significant victory for Mamata Banerjee’s party as it had not won any constituency in Alipurduar district in the 2021 state polls.

It is also the first time that the TMC, since its formation in 1998, has won Madarihat. As the results were announced on Saturday, Jay Prakash Toppo, the TMC candidate, emerged winner by defeating Rahul Lohar of the BJP. Toppo won by a margin of 28,171 votes.

Among the six Bengal seats where bypolls were held on November 13, Madarihat was the sole seat that the BJP bagged in 2021.

That the TMC was keen to win Madarihat became evident when chief minister Mamata Banerjee despatched multiple leaders from Calcutta, including Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, to monitor the campaign.

The Rajya Sabha MP stayed there for over a fortnight to implement multiple strategies ahead of the poll and recharged TMC leaders who had become inactive because of internal rifts.

“Among the six Assembly segments, our main challenge was Madarihat, where the BJP had won twice (in 2016 and 2021) and also got a lead in Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year. That is why Mamata Banerjee personally oversaw the candidature and campaign strategies for that seat,” said a TMC leader.

The leader added that the party specifically targeted villages where the BJP had secured significant leads, and the strategy was to repeatedly engage with voters in those pockets.

Senior TMC leaders were tasked to identify specific issues in areas such as tea gardens or regions prone to elephant conflicts.

“They assured the villagers that these problems would be addressed as soon as the election was over. The assurances yielded results on the ground,” said a party functionary.

The importance of the victory for the TMC became even more evident as the party’s national general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee specially mentioned the win in his social media handle.

“A special thanks to the people of Madarihat for giving us the opportunity to serve you for the first time,” Abhishek posted on X.

Political observers pointed out that the BJP was under duress in Madarihat and the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the constituency indicated that. In 2021, Manoj Tigga, the BJP candidate, had won by a margin of 29,000 votes. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s lead from the Assembly segment dropped to 11,000.

The seat had become vacant as Tigga was elected as the MP from the Alipurduar seat and had to give up his Assembly seat.

“The bypoll results will put Manoj Tigga underpressure in the party as Madarihat is his home turf. He cannot evade his responsibility ashe is also the party’s president in the district,” said apolitical watcher.

While questions are being raised within the BJP asto why the party couldn’t retain the seat, TMC leaders pointed out that Mamata’s initiatives to reopen the closed tea estates and her decision to provide land rights and free houses to the tea workers helped her party.

“In Madarihat, there are 24 tea estates and the state has managed to reopen some closed ones as well. The BJP and the central government, on the other hand, didn’t do anything for the tea workers and their families. Around one lakh voters of the tea belt have voted this time keeping these facts in mind. This changed the results,” said Toppo, the TMC candidate.

Tigga, like state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar, tried to put up a brave face. “We accept the defeat. But in the 2026state polls, we will regain the seat,” he said.

Sangita’s Sitai win

Sitai TMC candidate Sangita Roy on Saturday defeated the BJP’s Dipak Kumar Roy by a margin of 1,30,156 votes.In 2021, her husband Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, who is the Cooch Behar MP now, won the seat with amargin of 10,112 votes.Sangita, TMC sources said,is the first woman MLA elected from the party inCooch Behar.

Additional reporting bySnehamoy Chakraborty in Calcutta and Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar