KOLKATA: As expected, the BJP won the re election in the Falta Assembly constituency, a traditional stronghold of the Trinamool Congress under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat in South 24 Parganas district, raising its tally to 208 out of 294 Assembly constituencies in the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
The result also indicated a significant electoral rise for the CPI M led Left Front, which secured the second position in Falta.
The BJP’s main rival, the former ruling party Trinamool Congress, was pushed to the fourth position in Falta with 7,756 votes, while the Congress secured more than 10,000 votes after the completion of counting in the final 21st round.
Repolling in the Falta constituency, which has traditionally witnessed poll violence, including alleged false voting, rigging, booth jamming and intimidation sponsored by the then ruling Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee, was held peacefully across 285 polling stations on 21 May without any reports of violence.
The counting was held at the Diamond Harbour Women’s College.
BJP candidate Debangshu Panda, who secured more than 1,49,000 votes, won the seat by a margin of over 1,08,000 votes against his nearest rival, Sambhunath Kurmi of the CPI M, who bagged more than 40,000 votes.
Expressing his gratitude to the voters for the BJP’s landslide victory in Falta, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said in a post on X in Bengali: “Trinamool Congress’s notorious ‘Diamond Harbour’ model from today has been turned into a ‘model defeat’. First of all, I offer my pranam to the people of Falta for sending our BJP candidate to the Legislative Assembly with huge mandates.”
“I had also made requests to you (voters) to make our candidate a winner with a margin of minimum one lakh votes. But you have given him more than that. I owe a lot to you and will pay it back through development works in Falta,” Suvendu wrote in the X post.
Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress and MP from the Diamond Harbour constituency, controlled the administration in his home turf and patronised party workers during elections since becoming an MP in 2014. Opposition parties had termed his style of functioning the “Diamond Harbour model”.
The re election in Falta was significant for the BJP, which formed its first government in the state after securing 208 seats, and also for the CPI M, which has been trying to emerge as the principal opposition force.
Trinamool Congress nominated candidate Jahangir Khan, a local strongman and close aide of Abhishek Banerjee, withdrew his candidature from Falta, his home constituency, on 20 May, a day before the repolling.
The Trinamool Congress had retained the Falta seat since 2011 with an average vote share of around 54 per cent.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP secured around 37 per cent votes in Falta. The party had not fielded candidates from the constituency in the previous two Assembly elections held in 2011 and 2016.
The constituency witnessed a three cornered contest among the BJP, the CPI M led Left Front backed by its ally the Indian Secular Front, and the Congress.
The Congress had fielded a candidate with Left support in 2021 and secured only three per cent of the vote share in Falta, while the CPI M, which had a 37 per cent vote share in both 2011 and 2016, had emerged as the principal challenger to the then ruling Trinamool Congress.
“Trinamool Congress gave a walkover to the BJP but only the Left is in the battle,” CPI M leader Sujan Chakraborty had said while reacting to Khan’s withdrawal from the contest in Falta.
No Trinamool Congress heavyweight, including Abhishek Banerjee, was seen campaigning for Khan during the repolling phase in Falta, located around 40 km from Kolkata.
Abhishek, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Diamond Harbour for a third consecutive term since 2014 with a record margin of more than seven lakh votes, did not address a single rally in Falta during the repolling campaign in support of Khan.
Khan had earlier provided Abhishek a lead of around 1.70 lakh votes from the Falta Assembly segment during the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP formed the government in Bengal for the first time after winning 208 seats, including Falta, while the former ruling Trinamool Congress secured only 80 seats in the state.
