KOLKATA: Ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) registered a massive victory securing over half of the total polled votes at Sabang bypoll in West Bengal on Sunday.
Securing over 1.06 lakh votes out of total 2.08 lakh polled votes, TMC candidate Gitarani Bhunia scored a lead of 67,192 votes over her nearest rival Rita Mondal of Communist Party of India (Marxist), who secured 41,987 votes.
On the other hand, BJP, which had secured just over 10,000 votes in the constituency in 2016 Assembly election, made a substantial growth with the party's candidate Antara Bhattacharya coming third with 37,476 votes.
However, incumbent Congress, which boasted Sabang as one of its bastions in the state, put up a poor show with its candidate Chiranjib Bhowmick securing only 18,060 votes.
The bypoll was necessitated after winning candidate Gitarani Bhunia's husband and former West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Manas Bhunia was elected to the Rajya Sabha after crossing the floor over to Trinamool Congress last year.
The spectacular victory of TMC may be attributed more to the mass following of Manas Bhunia in the constituency more than the organisational strength of the ruling party in the constituency in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal.
The results have brought some consolatory smiles on the faces of CPM leaders, who have steadily witnessed a downslide since being voted out in 2011 Assembly elections and also to BJP, who have set a target of defeating TMC in 2018 panchayat polls, 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the ultimate 2021 Assembly polls.
The election just after BJP's unsatisfactory performance in Gujarat was seen as a litmus test of the saffron party's growth in West Bengal. Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was used for the first time in West Bengal after Gujarat by the Election Commission to silence allegations of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering.