‘Ek, dui, teen, BJP ke biday din,’ says Mamata as TMC sweeps West Bengal bypolls, claims all 3 assembly seats

West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress won all three seats in the Assembly bypolls on Thursday, snatching Kaliaganj and Kharagpur from its opponents while retaining Karimpur.

It was a disappointing day for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which not only failed to open its account, but also lost in two prestigious seats - Kaliaganj and Kharagpur - where its heavyweight candidates had taken massive leads during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

The newly stitched Congress-Left Front alliance also came a cropper, with its candidates forfeiting their security deposits in all the three seats that went to by-polls on November 25.

Elated over the results, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called it the "victory of ma, mati, manush (mother, land and people - Trinamool's pet slogan)" and dedicated it to the masses.

Banerjee was particularly happy about Kaliaganj and Kharagpur Sadar, which the party never managed to win since its formation in 1998.

Tapan Deb Sinha of the Trinamool Congress won the Kaliaganj seat in a close contest, defeating his nearest BJP rival Kamal Chandra Sarkar by 2,418 votes, EC officials said.

Congress's Paramathanath Roy had won the seat in the last assembly election. The party had fielded his daughter Dhritashree, who finished third.

Kaliaganj is an assembly segment under Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency, which the BJP had won barely a few months ago.

TMC's Pradip Sarkar wrested Kharagpur Sadar seat from the BJP. He defeated Premchandra Jha of the saffron party by a comfortable margin of 20,788 votes.

TMC nominee for Karimpur Bimalendu Sinha Roy has won the seat by over 24,119 votes over his BJP rival Jaiprakash Majumdar. TMC's Mohua Mitra had bagged Karimpur in the last polls before she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Krishnanagar.