West Bengal bypolls: TMC remains unscathed by outrage over RG Kar case, wins all 6 seats

Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has won the byebolls in all the six Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, proving that the mass agitation over the rape and murder of a young doctor at a hospital run by the state government could not hurt the electoral fortune of the party.

The outrage over the crime put Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government in a tight spot for almost three months, but it failed to end the binary of the electoral politics of West Bengal, with the leftist parties, despite playing a key role in mobilising the protests on the streets, could not reap the political dividends of the ‘drohkaal’ as the communists referred to the weeks of agitations.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which replaced the Left Front as the main opposition party in West Bengal in 2021, could not pose much of a challenge to the TMC in the by-polls for the Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, Taldangra, and Sitai assembly seats, which the ruling party already had in its kitty. The infighting within the BJP rather cost it Madarihat, which it had won in 2016 and 2021 state assembly elections.

The TMC for the first time won in Madarihat, which had been a stronghold of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, a constituent of the Left Front, from 1977 till 2016.

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 “I would like to thank and congratulate the 'Maa, Mati, and Manush' (Mothers, Land and People) from the bottom of my heart. Your blessings will help us work for the people in the coming days,” Banerjee posted on X after her party’s clean sweep in the bye-elections in the state.

“We are not ‘zamindar’ (landlords), we are ‘paharadar’ (sentinels) of people.”

Sangita Roy and Rabiul Islam, the TMC candidates in Sitai in North Bengal and Haroa in South Bengal defeated their nearest rivals with huge margins of 1,30,636 and 1,31,388 votes respectively. 

Sujoy Hazra, Falguni Singhababu, Sanat Dey, and Jayprakash Toppo of the TMC won in Medinipur, Taldangra, Naihati, and Madarihat respectively.

“We did not pay much attention to the bye-elections in the six assembly constituencies. We are focussed on preparing for the 2026 assembly elections, when free and fair polling would be ensured and we would come to power in West Bengal, ousting the Trinamool Congress,” Suvendu Adhikari, the state BJP heavyweight and the Leader of Opposition in the legislative assembly, said.   

The BJP did take to the streets over the rape and murder of the doctor, but could not take as prominent a role as the leftists had. 

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other leftist parties took to the streets in the wake of the August 9 rape and murder of the young doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata,  They also extended support and often allegedly played a behind-the-scene role in organising protests by the junior doctors, theatre and film personalities, as well as the civil society activists, not only against the brutal crime but also against corruption in the public healthcare sector of the state.

But the candidates fielded by the leftist parties and supported by them forfeited deposits in all the six assembly constituencies. The Indian Secular Front’s candidate, supported by other leftist parties, in Haroa was the only one to come second.

“The rape and murder of the doctor at the RGKMCH was not a poll issue for us. But the widespread protest against the heinous crime reflected the mood of the people,” Sujan Chakraborty, a senior CPI(M) leader, said.

“When will the CPI(M) graduate from zero to one?” Kunal Ghosh, a senior TMC leader, said, taking a dig at the leftists, who could not win a seat in the state assembly in the 2021 polls.

The Congress had contested solo and its candidates forfeited deposits in all the six constituencies.

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Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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