Mamata Banerjee on Friday lauded candidates for defeating the BJP in the Assembly bypolls at Dumri in Jharkhand, Puthuppally in Kerala, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh and Dhupguri in Bengal, claiming it as a big win for the INDIA partnership, after thanking the people of north Bengal for helping her party wrest the seat from the saffron camp.
The Bengal chief minister, who was on her way to Delhi to attend President Droupadi Murmu’s G20 dinner, told journalists at the Calcutta airport that the victories of the INDIA nominees were significant in the run-up to the general election next year.
“I not only congratulate the people of Dhupguri but also those in our INDIA alliance who defeated the BJP in other states today,” said the Trinamul Congress chief, a principal leader in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
However, in Dhupguri, her INDIA partner CPM fielded Ishwar Chandra Roy and he was backed by the Congress, another constituent of the anti-BJP bloc. The CPM candidate secured less than seven per cent votes.
“This is a big win for our INDIA alliance. I want people to take (more) such decisions (going forward),” she added.
In other Assembly byelctions whose results were announced on Friday, the BJP won Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura and Bageshwar in Uttarakhand.
Mamata said two of the BJP’s three bypoll victories meant little as they came from Tripura.
“Results of the byelections of seven Assembly constituencies were declared. The BJP lost four of them, including one in Uttar Pradesh,” she said.
“Two of those three seats they won are in Tripura, where they (the BJP) don’t allow anyone else to contest elections. The BJP secured almost 90 per cent of the votes there. Since Tripura has only two Lok Sabha seats anyway, they have no reason to celebrate today,” said the chief minister.
With regard to the Dhupguri victory, which took Trinamul’s effective tally in the 294-seat Bengal Assembly (with one vacancy) to 223, Mamata said it was historic because the seat was wrested from the BJP, which now has 69 MLAs in Bengal.
“I want to congratulate the people of Dhupguri, including those working in tea gardens, Rajbanshis, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians for supporting Trinamul,” she said.
“In the (2019) Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had a lead of over 19,000 votes in this (Assembly segment). It was one of their strongholds and many BJP ministers had been camping (in Dhupguri) for a month. They had booked all hotels and no space was left for others,” said Mamata.
“This is a big win for north Bengal and the people of Bengal,” she added.
“The whole of north Bengal is with us.... Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur. We won all zilla parishads and also panchayats a couple of months ago.”
