Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday congratulated all the Trinamool Congress candidates for the landslide victory in the by-elections to the four Assembly seats in the state.

 

The party that has got more than 75 per cent of the polled votes registered a huge victory in all the four assembly constituencies. In two, the ruling party secured a victory margin of more than 1 lakh.

Taking to Twitter, the chief minister said: "My heartiest congratulations to all the four winning candidates.... This victory is people's victory, as it shows how Bengal will always choose development and unity over propaganda and hate politics. With people's blessings, we promise to continue taking Bengal to greater heights."

Of the four candidates, Udayan Guha who contested from Dinhata in Cooch Behar won with the highest margin of 1,64,089 votes against Ashoke Mondal of the BJP.

Guha had lost to the BJP's Nishit Adhikari by a margin of only 57 votes in the recently concluded assembly polls. Adhikari wanted to continue as an MP and decided to resign and that led to the election. The Trinamool Congress was able to wrest the seat from the BJP in just six months.

The Trinamool Congress candidate from Gosaba in South 24 Parganas also registered a win with a margin of more than one lakh votes.

Mondal who was pitted against the BJP's Palash Rana defeated his rival by a margin of 1,43,051 votes. Though Gosaba was a winning seat for the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party managed to increase the margin. Trinamool Congress candidate Jayanata Naskar who won by a margin of a little less than 20000 votes in the last assembly polls died just after the announcement of the result.

The ruling party also won the Khardha seat in North 24 Parganas and was successful in bringing back Sovondeb Chattopadhyay to the assembly. Chattopadhyay who had earlier won from Bhabanipur assembly constituency had resigned to make way for chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Chattopadhyay won by a margin of 93832 votes defeating the BJP's Joy Saha.

Though the result of Santipur in Nadia assembly constituency is yet to be announced, but according to the latest information available Trinamool Congress candidate Brojokishore Goswamy is leading over his nearest rival Niranjan Biswas of the BJP by a margin of 64,022 votes.

According to Election Commission data, the ruling Trinamool Congress got 76.5 per cent of the total polled votes whereas the BJP, the second largest party in the state, managed to get only 14.5 per cent of the votes.

"The people of the state have given the mandate very clearly and loudly. It is clear that the people are against separatist and fundamentalist forces working in the state and they have no place in the state's politics," a senior cabinet minister said.