BJP president Amit Shah addressing a massive rally in Kolkata in Nov 2014 (Photo credit – PTI)
Kolkata: After drubbing in the Delhi Assembly elections last week, bad news has come for Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi today from West Bengal where the party’s hard efforts to hold toe on the ground has failed. BJP candidates in both Assembly and Lok Sabha by-polls were defeated by the ruling Trinamool Congress of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Trinamool Congress retained the Krishnaganj assembly seat and established a substantial lead in the Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency where bypolls were held on 13th Feb and votes were counted today (16th Feb).
In Krishnaganj in Nadia district, Trinamool candidate Satyajit Biswas won by a margin of over 37,000 votes against his closest rival Manabendra Roy of the BJP.
In Bongaon, Trinamool candidate Mamatabala Thakur was ahead of her nearest rival Subrata Thakur of the BJP by over 1 lakh votes after the tenth round of counting. Thakur was leading in all seven assembly segments of the primarily rural constituency comprising parts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts.
In the last couple of months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had addressed public rallies in West Bengal.
However, BJP can take solace in that it got the second position in both the constituencies, pushing the CPI-M headed Left Front to the third spot. Congress seemed to be running a poor fourth.
| By-election Results – 2015 | ||||
| State | Constituency | Winner | Runner-up | Last winner party |
| Andhra Pradesh | Tirupati (Assembly) |
|
TDP | |
| Arunachal Pradesh | Liromoba (Assembly) | |||
| Goa | Panaji (Assembly) | Sidharth Kunkolienkar (BJP) | Surendra Furtado (Congress) | BJP |
| Maharashtra | Mukhed (Assembly) | |||
| Tamil Nadu | Srirangam (Assembly) | AIADMK | ||
| West Bengal | Krishnaganj (Assembly) | Satyajit Biswas (Trinamool) | Manabendra Roy (BJP) | Trinamool |
| West Bengal | Bangaon (Lok Sabha) | Mamatabala Thakur (Trinamool) | Subrata Thakur (BJP) | Trinamool |
Besides West Bengal, by-poll was held for five assembly seats in as many states – Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
As per the latest report, BJP has retained Panaji assembly seat in Goa. The seat had got vacant after then chief minister Manohar Parrikar was inducted in the Union Cabinet led by PM Modi.
Meanwhile, Tirupati seat in Andhra Pradesh has been retained by the ruling Telugu Desam Party.
In the 7th Feb full assembly election in Delhi, BJP had got just three seats while the young Aam Aadmi Party bagged 67 seats in the 70-member Assembly. In the 2013 Assembly poll, BJP had won 32 seats. In this election, Congress got a zero, perhaps first time in the history of Delhi assembly.