BJP candidate Debangshu Panda won the Falta assembly seat on Sunday by a 1.09 lakh votes, breaching the stronghold of the Trinamool Congress, whose nominee Jahangir Khan slipped to fourth position.
Just days before the repoll, Khan announced that he would not be in the contest, a decision the TMC described as his personal.
Panda secured 1,49,666 votes while CPI(M)'s Sambhu Nath Kurmi came second with 40,645 votes cast in his favour.
Congress candidate Abdur Razzak Molla stood third with 10,084 votes. Khan got 7,783 votes in the 2.36 lakh-strong constituency.
The TMC had held the seat continuously since 2011 and won it in 2021 with around 57 per cent of the votes polled.
The repoll was conducted on May 21 in all 285 booths under heavy central force deployment after the Election Commission ordered fresh voting following allegations of large-scale irregularities during the April 29 polling.
The scale of the BJP's lead transformed what was expected to be a straightforward electoral exercise into a politically loaded outcome carrying implications far beyond the constituency.
Until a few weeks ago, Falta was being described by the Trinamool Congress camp as one of the key symbols of its organisational dominance in the Diamond Harbour belt.
The constituency had witnessed aggressive political mobilisation and had become central to a bitter face-off between the BJP and TMC.
Then came a sequence of events that altered the political script.
Khan, who cultivated a larger-than-life 'Pushpa'-style image of defiance during the campaign and emerged as one of the most recognisable faces of the contest, dramatically announced two days before the repoll that he was stepping aside "for Falta's interest".
Khan had also cited Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's promise of a special development package as a factor behind his decision. The TMC, however, quickly distanced itself from Khan's move, calling it his "personal decision"..
The repoll saw more than 87% of the 2.36 lakh electors turning up to vote. The Commission had significantly stepped up security arrangements, deploying around 35 companies of central forces across the constituency to ensure smooth voting.
The total electorate in the constituency comprises 1,21,300 men, 1,15,135 women and nine third-gender individuals.
Tension had gripped the constituency after complaints surfaced during the April 29 polling over alleged use of perfume-like substances and adhesive tapes on EVMs at multiple booths.
Subsequent scrutiny also revealed alleged attempts to tamper with footage captured by web cameras installed at several polling stations, raising questions over the role of booth-level officers, presiding officers, polling personnel and election observers.
Following its findings, the EC ordered repolling in all booths of the constituency.
(With inputs from PTI)