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Tag: Ballygunge bypoll

  • Ballygunge bypoll: Defeated CPM nominee Saira Halim gets in Twitter spat with winner Babul Supriyo

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Ballygunge assembly seat byelection winner Babul Supriyo of the Trinamool Congress and runner-up Saira Shah Halim of the CPM entered into a battle of words on social media on Sunday, with the former BJP MP attacking her for showing “no class” after defeat and terming the Left party’s campaign as “below the belt”.

    Taking to Twitter to retaliate, Halim said that her party believes in a classless society where the rich and the poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own. “I am relieved that we won Ballygunge defeating the vile, dirty, often below the belt, personal & false propaganda of @CPIM_WESTBENGAL,” Supriyo tweeted.

    And, now the lady who’s a loser by people’s verdict, doesn’t show the grace to accept the defeat but instead goes ahead to call me ‘Corrupt’But I will humbly & calmly enjoy the win letting her sulk in the pain of the loss Proves#EducationDoNotMakeOneEducated #LoserBjpCpim https://t.co/AY9eMnVXOU
    — Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) April 16, 2022
    Supriyo, who joined the TMC in September last year after being dropped as a minister of state from the Narendra Modi government, claimed that BJP candidate Keya Ghosh had her deposit forfeited for getting less than 6 per cent of the total votes cast.

    The newly-elected MLA from the prestigious Ballygunge seat in south Kolkata earlier tweeted, “Even after a filthy deplorable campaign full of lies & deceit @CPIM_WESTBENGAL & Saira Shah Halim shows no class, forget shame.”

    He also sought to remind the CPM that it has no representation in the West Bengal assembly with the Left Front not winning any seat in the 2021 elections in the state.

    Reacting to Supriyo’s tweets, Halim tweeted, “We believe in a classless society, where rich and poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own. Anyone who judges me as having ‘no class’, knows what he is fighting against.”

    We believe in a classless society,where rich and poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own.Anyone who judges me as having “no class”, knows what he is fighting against.
    — Saira Shah Halim ‏‎‎سائرہ (@sairashahhalim) April 17, 2022
    Accusing the CPM of resorting to a communal campaign in the byelection to Ballygunge, where more than 50 per cent of the electorate are from the minority community, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “It may have got some votes, but that does not mean a revival of the CPM is on the cards.”

    Ghosh said that the TMC leadership will look into how the Left party got more votes than what it had bagged in the last elections. He said that the CPM’s performance in the Asansol Lok Sabha by-election, which was won by the TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha with the BJP coming second, has been disastrous.

    Rising from just 5.61 per cent of the vote share in Ballygunge in the 2021 assembly elections, the CPIM) candidate notched up over 30 per cent of the votes polled in the by-poll, leaving behind the BJP to come up to the second position.

    The CPM last won from Ballygunge in 2001 and secured a third position behind the TMC and the BJP in the 2021 elections, which her husband Fuad Halim had contested.

  • Bypoll trends: RJD leads in Bihar, TMC in Bengal and Congress in Chhattisgarh

    By PTI

    KOLKATA/RAJNANDGAON/MUZZAFARPUR: The Trinamool Congress marched ahead of its rivals in the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency and the Ballygunge assembly segment by-polls after six rounds of counting, election officials said Saturday.

    In Ballygunge, TMC candidate Babul Supriyo is ahead of CPI(M)’s Saira Shah Halim by 9,105 votes, while the ruling party’s nominee Shatrughan Sinha is leading by 63,627 votes over BJP’s Agnimitra Paul in Asansol, they said.

    ALSO READ: Babul Supriyo confident of winning election, says West Bengal is with ‘Didi’, TMC

    Supriyo has so far bagged 18,874 votes and Sinha secured 1,61,441 votes.

    The by-polls, which took place on April 12, were necessitated as Supriyo resigned as the MP of Asansol after switching over to the TMC from the BJP, while state minister Subrata Mukherjee, who represented Ballygunge, died last year.

    A total of 15 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman district, while 2.5 lakh people could vote in south Kolkata’s Ballygunge.

    The counting exercise began at 8 am amid tight security.

    Congress leading in bypoll to Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh Assembly seat 

    Counting of votes for the bypoll to Khairagarh Assembly seat in Chhattisgarh began on Saturday morning and as per the early trends, the Congress candidate is leading by a margin of 1,242 votes, officials said.

    Both the ruling Congress and opposition BJP in the state are eyeing to win the seat that falls in the Naxal-hit Rajnandgaon district, where by-election was necessitated after Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) MLA Devvrat Singh died in November last year.

    “The counting of votes in the bypoll held on April 12 in Khairagarh seat began at 8 am at the godwon of state seeds development corporation here,” a poll official said.

    As per the early trends, Yashoda Verma of the Congress was leading by a margin of 1,242 votes against his nearest rival Komal Janghel of the BJP after three rounds of counting, he said.

    Verma secured 4,436 votes, while Janghel bagged 3,194 votes after the initial rounds of counting.

    JCC (J) candidate Narendra Soni has secured 49 votes, he said.

    The voter turnout in the bypoll for the seat located in state’s Naxal-affected Rajnandgaon district, was 77.88 per cent.

    Postal ballots were first taken up for counting followed by votes cast in the EVMs, the official said, adding that the entire process will be done in 21 rounds.

    A total of 10 contestants were in the fray, but political experts feel that this time the fight is virtually between the ruling Congress and opposition BJP as the JCC (J) has lost its appeal after the demise of Ajit Jogi in 2020.

    Devvrat Singh, who belonged to the erstwhile royal family of Khairagarh, quit Congress in 2017 and joined former JCC (J) the next year.

    He contested the 2018 Assembly polls on the JCC(J) ticket from Khairagarh.

    He defeated BJP candidate Komal Janghel by a thin margin of 870 votes.

    This time, the BJP has once again fielded Komal Janghel, a former MLA, for the bypoll, while Yashoda Verma, the Khairagarh block unit chief of Congress, is the ruling party’s nominee.

    Janghel and Verma both belong to the Lodhi caste, a numerically powerful OBC community in the Khairagarh area.

    However, stakes are high for the ruling Congress, as it is fighting to retain this seat, which was once considered as its bastion.

    Congress has promised the people to make Khairagarh a district if it wins the seat.

    In the 2018 assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, the Congress registered a landslide victory winning 68 seats in the 90-member House decimating the BJP to 15.

    The JCC (J) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had bagged 5 and 2 seats respectively.

    Subsequently, the state witnessed bypolls to three assembly seats which were won by Congress, improving its tally to 70 in the assembly.

    RJD candidate leads by 11,620 votes in Bihar’s Bochahan 

    Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Amar Kumar Paswan on Saturday widened his lead over his nearest rival Baby Kumari of the BJP to 21,049 in the bypoll to Bihar’s Bochahan assembly constituency, an Election Commission official said.

    ALSO READ: Counting of votes of by-poll for Bochahan assembly seat in Bihar underway

    Paswan secured 46,307 votes, while Kumari got 25,258 after the 14th round of counting, he said.

    Vikassheel Insaan Party’s Geeta Kumari was in the third position with 15,757 votes.

    The counting of votes for the assembly constituency in Muzaffarpur district is underway.

    Bypoll to the seat was necessitated by the death of MLA Musafir Paswan, who had won on the ticket of the Vikassheel Insaan Party.

    Around 59.20 per cent of 2,90,544 voters had exercised their franchise in the by-election to the assembly segment on April 12.

    Altogether 13 candidates, including three women, are contesting for the seat.

  • Ballygunge by-poll: Babul Supriyo confident of winning election, says West Bengal is with ‘Didi’, TMC

    By ANI

    BALLYGUNGE: As the counting of votes cast in the by-poll to the Ballygunge Assembly seat is underway, TMC candidate Babul Supriyo on Saturday exuded confidence in winning the election and said the people of West Bengal are with Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.

    “I’m confident. The 41 per cent voters turnout here rubbished the opposition’s unnecessary claim of false voting. Had that been the case, would turnout have been this huge? West Bengal is with Didi and TMC”, said Babul Supriyo.

    The by-polls were necessitated after former Union Minister Babul Supriyo resigned as the Lok Sabha MP of Asansol after resigning from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He later joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The Ballygunge Assembly seat by-poll was necessitated after the demise of state Minister Subrata Mukherjee.

    Speaking on the Asansol Lok Sabha by-poll, Supriyo said, “Asansol has given me much love and I will always appreciate it. Shatrughan Sinha’s victory is also certain. Before reaching the final phase of the result every moment is interesting and let’s enjoy the journey.”

    The TMC has fielded yesteryear actor Shatrughan Sinha in Asansol, which has a substantial Hindi-speaking population, while the BJP has nominated Asansol Dakshin MLA Agnimitra Paul from the constituency.

    In the state Assembly elections last year, Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 213 seats while BJP on the other hand garnered 77 seats in the 294-seat state Assembly.

    In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Supriyo had defeated TMC candidate Moon Moon Sen by a massive margin of 1,97,637 votes, securing 51.56 per cent of the total votes polled. In 2014, Supriyo’s victory margin was 70,480 votes.

    Bye-election to a Ballygunge Assembly seat and Asansol Lok Sabha seat was held on April 12.

    On the polling day, BJP’s Lok Sabha by-poll candidate Agnimitra Paul alleged that TMC workers thrashed her security personnel and pelted stones at her convoy while TMC candidate Babul Supriyo alleged electoral malpractice by BJP.