TMC continues Lok Sabha’s winning momentum in assembly by-elections: wins all four seats

 TMC emerged victorious in the by-elections to four assembly seats

TMC supporters celebrate with Shreya Pandey, daughter of party candidate Supti Pandey, as she leads from Maniktala constituency during counting of votes for Assembly by-election, in Kolkata, Saturday | PTI

Niladry Sarkar, The Week, 13 July 2024 : On Saturday, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) emerged victorious in the by-elections to four assembly constituencies in West Bengal. The ruling party continued its winning momentum from the recently-concluded Lok Sabha in all the assembly seats, Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Baghdah and Maniktala, where by-polls were held on Tuesday.

The victories bring encouragement for Mamata Banerjee's party, as the BJP had won Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, and Bagdah in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections. The saffron party also led the TMC in these legislative segments during the 2024 parliamentary polls.

In North 24 Parganas’ Bagdah and Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia, part of West Bengal’s Matua belt where the BJP is considered stronger, the TMC faced defeat in the 2021 assembly polls and trailed in general elections as well.

Bagdah has been won by 25-year-old Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur. A direct descendant of the founder of Matua sect Harichand Thakur, she defeated BJP’s Binay Kumar Biswas by over 30,000 votes in her first ever election to give the TMC Bagdah for the first time since 2011.

Bagdah is part of Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency which is represented by BJP leader and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur who happens to be the cousin of Madhuparna.

Meanwhile, in Ranaghat Dakshin, TMC’s Mukut Mani Adhikari defeated the BJP’s Manoj Kumar Biswas. Adhikari, a former MLA who won Ranaghat Dakshin with a BJP ticket in 2021, defected the party ahead of the parliamentary polls to contest as a TMC candidate from Ranaghat Lok Sabha constituency.

He not only lost the general elections but also suffered an embarrassment by conceding a huge lead of around 37,000 votes in the assembly segment of Ranaghat Dakshin. But he turned the tide in the by-elections as he won by over 38,000 votes to give Trinamool another Matua dominated seat.

The BJP’s heavy defeat in two Matua seats reflect erosion in the party’s organisational capacity. While the party managed to win the Matua seats in Lok Sabha elections, riding on the issue of CAA, the same failed in the by-elections.

Also, the Trinamool has successfully challenged the BJP’s authority, headed by Shantanu Thakur, in the All India Matua Mahasangh. The leading socio-religious organisation of the Matua community is now a divided house with the Mamata Bala Thakur-led TMC faction wielding equal influence, if not more.

Ahead of the bypoll, section of BJP workers in Bagdah were seen openly demanding for a local candidate, highlighting a lack of coordination between the BJP leadership and grassroots workers in selection of the party’s face for the election.

Eventually, the BJP fielded Biswas, who was considered as an outsider by local party workers. They threatened demonstrations against the BJP leadership and warned of putting up independent candidate. Two local BJP leaders resigned ahead of the polls. The mismanagement in the party’s grassroots could be a factor behind the Trinamool’s victory in Bagdah.

The BJP state leadership blamed violence by local TMC workers for the defeat. “We agree we have failed to build the organisational capacity to fight the TMC’s bombs and bullets,” said BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya during an interaction with the media on Saturday.

“The ruling party always wins by-elections in West Bengal. This is the tradition. After the elections, we anticipated [defeats in Bagdah and Ranaghat Dakshin]. We have to introspect why we lost by such huge margins.”

In Uttar Dinajpur’s Raiganj, where the by-election was made necessary as incumbent BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani resigned ahead of the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year following his defection to Trinamool in 2021. Kalyani, who unsuccessfully contested the general elections with a TMC ticket, was renominated by the party.

He snatched Raiganj, where the TMC trailed behind the BJP with a margin of over 45,000 votes in the Lok Sabha elections, by defeating BJP’s Manas Kumar Ghosh by almost 50,000 votes on Saturday.

“This is a victory of Mamata Banerjee and her government’s welfare schemes. I am thankful to the people of Raiganj for blessing me and showing their confidence on Mamata Banerjee,” Kalyani told THE WEEK.

“During Lok Sabha elections, PM Narendra Modi can and spread hatred among people with the Sandeshkhali issue. But now everyone knows the truth about Sandeshkhali and it is reflected in the result.”

In Raiganj, the BJP’s organisational failure had come to the light ahead of the by-election. Following the announcement of Ghosh as the candidate, the BJP’s district secretary and a prominent youth leader from Uttar Dinajpur resigned. Although the party asserted that the resignations were unrelated to the election, they were perceived as protests by party members against the candidature of Ghosh, who had defected from the TMC.

Trinamool’s Supti Pandey defeated All India Football Federation (AIFF) chief and BJP candidate Kalyan Chaubey in Maniktala. Even though Maniktala, part of Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha, has been a TMC stronghold for years, reduction in the winning margin gave the party a headache ahead of the by-elections.

The Trinamool, which won Maniktala by over 20,000 votes in the 2021 assembly elections, saw its lead come down to just about 3,000 votes in this year’s general elections. This time, Supti, wife of former MLA Sadhan Pandey, won the seat by a margin of over 60,000 votes.

As a result of the victory in four seats, TMC’s tally in the West Bengal Assembly goes up to 219.