Team News Riveting
Kolkata, October 3
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Mamata Banerjee has set a record in the by-polls; winning Bhabanipur by a record margin and becoming first Chief Minister to hold the office even after losing elections.
Mamata’s final victory margin was 58,832, surpassing her 2011 margin of 54,213. Earlier, at the end of counting for round 21, she was leading by 58,389 votes, breaking former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s record of a 58,128-vote victory margin as a sitting chief minister in 2006. Bhattacharjee has contested the election from Jadavpur.
Mamata also created another record, happens to be the only chief minister to have continued in the post despite facing a loss while her party romped home in the May 2021 state elections. She lost the election to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
As per the constitutional norms, Mamata has to get elected to the state assembly within six months of taking oath as the Chief Minister. The deadline was ending on November 5.
The Chief Minister was however cautious in Bhabanipur after tasting a bitter electoral experience in Nandigram. During the campaign, as political observers said, she was in defensive mode and sought votes to retain the Chief Minister’s post.
Mamata’s winning margin in 2016 was around 25,000. To compensate for the humiliating defeat in Nandigram, the TMC managers had drawn the strategy to ensure that she retained the seat with record margin. Compared to the 2016 elections, the voters’ turnout was 13 per cent more in the by-elections but less than the last election. Still, the margin between Bhattacharjee and Banerjee’s record has been very thin.
Political observers said both the poll outcomes could not be compared. For, Bhattacharjee contested the election when mandate was uncertain while Mamata contested the by-elections with certainty that she would remain in office for another four-and-a-half-year.
Despite pulling all the strings, TMC could increase its votes by around 12,000 compared to May 2021 polls despite Chief Minister being a candidate. In the election held five months ago, the voter turnout was 61.79 per cent while in the September 30 by-polls, 57 per cent voters exercised their franchise.
