The post RG Kar narrative failed to move the Trinamool Congress an inch from its place of strength even as the Bengal ruling outfit on Saturday clinched all the six Assembly seats that went to by-elections on November 13 by a bigger margin than what was recorded in 2021 Assembly elections.
Elections were held to six Assembly seats of Sitai, Madarihat, Naihati, Haroa --- in Coochbehar, Alipurduar and North 24 Parganas districts and Medinipur and Taldangra in West Midnapore and Bankura districts respectively.
The by-elections tended to underscore the big point that rural and urban Bengal thought differently when it came to social-political issues and hardcore economics, experts said marveling at how Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's electoral strategies once again got the better of a burning woman-centric issue like post rape and murder of a lady doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital that led to Statewide stir for more than three months.
This, even as TMC's Sangita Roy won the Sitai seat by defeating BJP's Dipak Kumar Roy by a margin of 1,30,156 votes. In 201 the TMC won the seat by a martin of about 10,000. In neighbouring Madarihat also in North Bengal TMC's JP Toppo too won by a big margin winning the seat for the first time since its formation in 2000 and wresting it from the sitting BJP MLA.
In Haroa, TMC's Sk Rabiul Islam won by defeating ISF nominee Piyarul Islam by 1,31,388 votes, The BJP's Bimal Das here got 13,570 votes.
In Naihati, Sanat Dey defeated BJP's Rupak Mitra by a landslide margin of 48,912 votes, surpassing the 18,675-vote.
Similarly TMC's Falguni Singha Roy won the Taldangra seat in Bankura district by a margin of 34,000 votes. Medinipur seat in the neighbouring West Midnapore district was also won by the TMC by a whopping margin of 1.15 lakh votes.
With the Saturday's results the BJP's strength in Bengal Assembly came down to 67 in comparison to TMC's 226. The ISF has one seat and Left and Congress have none.
Thanking the people for the victory the Chief Minister said, "we are not zamindars but watchmen of people adding "this is the victory of the people … I would like to thank the 'Maa, Mati, Manush… Your blessings will help us continue working for the people… I will preserve this blessings in the core of my heart."
"We told you that the TMC will win all the six seats by sweeping margins and we proved that… this is because there is no leader who can challenge Mamata Banerjee's charisma and development works… in fact Narendra Modi is imitating Mamata Banerjee by instituting Laadli Behna and such other schemes which are just PR and advertisement exercises… but here in Bengal the Chief Minister is doing things from the core of her heart and the people are loving and appreciating it," TMC leader Kunla Ghosh said adding, "some people thought that the disinformation campaign post RG Kar would go against the TMC… but such stray movements I urban centres do not impact rural India."
Dismissing the victory Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari said that his party was not worried about such results. "Don't worry we will win in 2026… such by-elections are conducted with money and muscle-power and often the ruling party wins so this will not have any impact on 2026 Assembly elections," he said.
Union Minister and State BJP president said that his party would definitely form the Government in 2026. "In Kaliaganj by-elections we lost to BJP but in subsequent Assembly election in 2021 we won and even in the parliamentary elections we secured lead from there… so these by-elections do not matter much for us," he said.
Meanwhile, in a related development the TMC congratulated the Congress candidate from Wayanad Priyanka Gandhi for winning the Kerala seat by a record margin. "They are a different party… I must not comment much on them but Priyanka Gandhi is the descendent of a historical family… she is the son of Rajiv Gandhi and granddaughter of Indira Gandhi… her victory demands congratulations… we congratulate her… there is not much to say," TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.
