KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal retained the Kaliganj Assembly constituency in Nadia district in the by-election held last week. The Trinamool Congress candidate Alifa Ahmed won the election after defeating the BJP candidate Ashish Ghosh by a margin 50,049 votes. She secured 1,02,759 votes while Ghosh and Congress’ Kabil Uddin Shaikh got 52,710 and 28,348 votes respectively.
The results are on expected lines and have confirmed the complete control of Trinamool Congress Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the voters in rural and urban Bengal.
In a post on X, Ms Banerjee said, “People of all religions, castes, races and walks of life in the area have blessed us immensely by exercising their right to vote in the by-elections to the Kaliganj Assembly constituency. I humbly express my gratitude to them.”
“The people are the architect of this victory. My colleagues from Kaliganj have worked tirelessly for this. I congratulate them,” she added.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of the sitting Trinamool MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed. Alifa is the daughter of Nasiruddin Ahmed.
Meanwhile, citing voting trend BJP leader Amit Malviya claimed that BJP got more Hindu votes in Kaliganj this time compared to previous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
“This surge is a direct result of rising Hindutva consciousness and the backlash against recent Murshidabad riots. The truth: Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is surviving on a captive vote bank of Muslims, illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators and radical elements,” wrote Malviya on his X handle. “Just like they dumped the Left, Hindus of Bengal have dumped Mamata. 2026 won’t be a bypoll. It’ll be a full-blown revolution,” he added.
Meanwhile Congress candidate Shaikh alleged that the BJP and the TMC ensured together to divide votes among communal lines.