The Trinamool Congress won the Raiganj Assembly seat for the first time when Krishna Kalyani trounced Manash Ghosh of the BJP by a margin of 50,077 votes in a by-election whose result was announced on Saturday.

Raiganj was known to be a traditional stronghold of the Congress and part of the home turf of the late Priyaranjan Das Mushi, a stalwart of the party. The seat had always eluded the TMC that was formed 26 years ago.

“We had won all other eight Assembly seats in North Dinajpur at least once. But this is the first time that we have bagged the Raiganj seat,” said an elated Kanaialal Agarwala, the North Dinajpur district TMC president.

“The victory will be a booster for us as we are inching closer to completing the circle. The circle will be complete once we win the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat which we haven’t so far,” he added.

The BJP clinched the Raiganj seat in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and 2024 and led by 42,000 votes and 46,000 votes, respectively, in the Raiganj Assembly segment.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP won the seat by a margin of over 20,000 votes. Kalyani who had emerged as the winner later joined Trinamool and quit the Assembly. He was the Trinamool nominee from the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat in 2024 but lost to the BJP.

The BJP was apprehensive that Mohit Sengupta, the Congress candidate and a former MLA, would act as a spoiler and split anti-TMC votes and Hindu votes. Sengupta, who enjoyed the backing of the Left Front, polled only 23,116 votes.

Political veterans pointed out that several Trinamool leaders were inactive in Raiganj during the recent Lok Sabha elections.

“Krishna Kalyani was virtually alone in the Lok Sabha election campaign. However, ahead of the bypoll, based on instructions from Calcutta, they had jumped into action. This helped him win the by-election. Besides, a section of voters felt that they needed to have an MLA from the ruling party,” said a political observer.

The BJP and the Congress have alleged that TMC rigged the bypoll.

“We pointed out time and again that more than TMC leaders and workers, a section of administrative officials and police were desperate to ensure Trinamool’s win. Their bias for the TMC led to such a result,” Congress district general secretary Tushar Guha said.

Manash Ghosh, the BJP candidate, said the byelection had been manipulated like the rural and civic elections. “Earlier, TMC nominees had made it to rural and civic bodies by rigging elections. We have now a representative in the Assembly who won similarly,” Ghosh said.

Kalyani denied the charge. “People are not with the BJP. They have backed the TMC for development projects implemented by the state government,” he said.