TMC won all bypolls in West Bengal since last year: Derek O'Brien

New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has won all 11 bypolls held in West Bengal since 2024, its leader Derek O'Brien said on Monday as the Mamata Banerjee-led party won the Kaliganj Assembly by-election by a convincing margin.

In a post on X, O'Brien shared a list of bypolls won by the party over the last one year.

"Since the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, there have been 11 bypolls held in Bengal," he said, pointing out that the TMC has won all, while other parties scored a zero.

An infographic shared by the TMC's Rajya Sabha leader showed that the party won the contests in all the Assembly segments with a vote share higher than that registered in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

In the bypolls held in July last year, the TMC won the Raiganj seat with a margin of 50,077 votes, while in the Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won the seat and the margin was 46,739 votes in the Raiganj Assembly segment.

Similarly, the Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagdah and Madarihat Assembly bypolls last year gave the TMC a higher margin than the BJP's winning margin from these areas in the Lok Sabha election.

The Maniktala seat in state capital Kolkata, which also went to bypoll in July last year, was won by the TMC, surpassing its margin in the general election. Similarly, from seats like Sitai, Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur and Taldangra, the ruling party's victory margin grew, according to the table.

TMC's Alifa Ahmed won the Kaliganj Assembly bypoll, the results of which were declared on Monday, by a convincing margin of 50,049 votes over her nearest BJP rival, Ashish Ghosh, bettering the 2021 winning margin of her father Nasiruddin Ahmed, whose death in February had necessitated the election to the seat in Nadia district.

After the final 23rd round of counting, Ahmed bagged 1,02,759 votes compared to Ghosh, who finished the race with 52,710 votes, according to figures posted by the Election Commission on its website.

The Left-supported Congress candidate, Kabil Uddin Shaikh, came in third with 28,348 votes. PTI AO RC