Firhad Hakim on Wednesday won the by-election to become councillor of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation from Ward 82 (the Chetla area), fulfiling a legislative requirement to continue as the city’s mayor.

As Hakim’s victory was assured, the only point of interest about the election, which was held on Sunday, was the margin of victory he would notch up. He did not disappoint his supporters, winning the seat with 76.82 per cent of the votes polled.

Hakim, also urban development minister, had won from the same ward in 2010 with 72.25 per cent of the votes polled, which till Tuesday was his best electoral performance.

Such was the scale of his victory that all opposition candidates forfeited their deposits. Hakim’s nearest rival, Jiban Sen of the BJP, could secure only 11.95 per cent of the votes polled. The vote share of the CPI and the Congress was 8.04 and 2.49 per cent, respectively.

“This is people’s victory. The result suggests that like the CPM, the BJP, too, is fading fast from the voters’ minds. One day will come when Trinamul will secure 100 per cent votes,” Hakim said after emerging from the counting centre.

“I had predicted this result after Trinamul supporters threatened to kill my election agents on the poll day. Our vote share does not reflect our support base,” he said.

Sen had alleged that all his 42 polling agents had to leave the polling booths after Trinamul activists threatened to kill them.

Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said: “Earlier, we were not even able to file nomination. This time we could at least contest the bypoll. This result does not foreshadow the outcome of the upcoming general elections, which will see new dynamics and a change in the political picture of the state.”

Hakim had won as Trinamul candidate thrice from Ward 82 — in 2000, 2005 and 2010. In 2015, he opted out of the civic elections and his confidante, Pranab Biswas, contested the poll.

Biswas had won with 54.81 per cent of the votes polled.

The bypoll was necessitated after Biswas resigned as councillor on health grounds.

Chief minister and Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee named Hakim as Calcutta’s mayor following the resignation of Sovan Chatterjee as mayor in November. Chatterjee had helmed the civic body since 2010.

Hakim was not a councillor and hence, was barred by the CMC act from becoming mayor. The government hurriedly brought an amendment to the act that allows a non-councillor from becoming mayor provided he or she becomes a member of the civic house in six months.