West Bengal bypolls: CM predicts comfortable victory

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari presaged a record-breaking victory in the two Assembly seats of Nandigram and Rejinagar, in byelections held on Tuesday amid stray incidents and reporting demands from the Opposition Congress and the Left.

“The elections were peacefully conducted,” Adhikari said, predicting a comfortable win from both the seats, particularly in Nandigram, which he said the BJP would win by a “record-breaking margin.” Counting would take place on October 9.

“The voting has taken place peacefully, and people have taken part in it actively... I am sure the BJP will win comfortably... Particularly in Nandigram it will win by a record margin as the people have reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s good work,” Adhikari reiterated.

Repolling to the Nandigram seat was necessitated after sitting MLA Adhikari left the seat, preferring to retain the Bhawanipore seat in Kolkata, where he defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the April-May Assembly elections.

The two constituencies recorded a high polling rate, with Rejinagar at 78.42 per cent and Nandigram at about 79.39 per cent till 5 pm. The vote percentage was likely to go up a few notches further, as people were still standing in queues, sources said. “That the election was peaceful is proved by the high percentage of polling, as generally in Bengal about 60-65 per cent of people take part in by-elections,” said BJP leader and MLA Sajal Ghosh.

The Congress, Left and the Trinamool Congress, however, rejected claims of peaceful polling, demanding repolling in both the seats.

While former Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury condemned the process as “violence in silence with the help of police,” State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar demanded a re-poll, saying there was no change in the election pattern from what it was during the TMC regime.

“Our Rejinagar candidate is sitting in a dharna at the Rejinagar police station... By 3 pm there were complaints of booth capturing in at least 230 booths... the BJP goons beat our agents away,” Sarkar said. Adhir Chowdhury said that the police were used to chase away the voters in booths after booths, whereas the BJP goons drove away the polling agents before they jointly rigged polls.

Sitting MLA from Rejinagar, Humayun Kabir, who earlier surrendered the seat necessitating a re-poll, also complained of “massive booth capturing” by the policemen, even threatening a counterattack, following which the police detained him. The CPI(M) candidate from Rejinagar also demanded a re-poll.