'Arise, awake, stop not till goal is reached,' says BJP after Mamata Banerjee wins Bhabanipur bypolls

Following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee victory in Bhabanipur bypolls with a record margin, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said it will continue to fight the regressive politics of Trinamool Congress (TMC).

"After being demolished in Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee may have survived in Bhabanipur for now, but it has never happened that a losing candidate chose to thrust herself as the Chief Minister, in violation of all democratic norms and proprietary," said the West Bengal unit of BJP in a statement.

The party alleged that the by-election had been declared at the behest of Mamata Banerjee-led government's Chief Secretary amidst the prevailing COVID situation and post-poll violence.

"The elections were held under an overbearing state administration, with the dark shadow of fear, intimidation and gloom of the post-poll violence hanging over the electorate. The impartiality of the state administration was evident during the election campaign of BJP candidate who was stopped at various places in the poll-going constituency, disregardingthe basic right of an election candidate to reach out to one's electorate," alleged BJP.

BJP further alleged that polling in Bhabanipur was marred by rampant fake voting. The party said continued violations of democratic norms, electoral code of conduct and patronising violence will not be able to save the Trinamool Congress in the long run.

"The BJP will continue to fight the regressive politics of TMC and Mamata Banerjee", the party statement said.

It further emphasised that BJP will continue to fight tooth and nail against such democratic irregularities and will not stop till rule of law is restored in West Bengal.

Quoting Swami Vivekananda, the BJP statement said, "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached."

Bhabanipur gave its verdict for Banerjee as she won a resounding victory in the Assembly by-poll by a record margin of over 58,000 votes against her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thus making Banerjee a member of the state Legislative Assembly and will allow her to continue as Chief Minister of the West Bengal.

According to the Election Commission of India, Mamata Banerjee secured 85,263 votes which are around 71.90 per cent of the total votes connected in the bye-elections.

Banerjee's main competition, BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal got 26,428 votes and CPI (M) candidate Srijib Biswas secured 4,226 votes.

The win was crucial for Banerjee, as she has to secure a legislative assembly seat by the first week of November and continue as the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Notably, Mamata Banerjee was defeated by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari in the Nandigram constituency in the Assembly elections held earlier this year.

Following this, the Bhabanipur Assembly seat was vacated by the

West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, making way for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to contest from Bhabanipur seat as a move to continue to hold her post.

BJP fielded 41-year-old Priyanka Tibrewal against the TMC chief.

A lawyer by profession, Tibrewal is the vice-president of the

West Bengal unit of BJP Yuva Morcha. She is also the petitioner in the Calcutta High Court against the post-poll violence in the state. Notably, the High Court has ordered a CBI probe in violence in West Bengal after the Assembly elections.

The bypolls for the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency took place on September 30.

Trinamool Congress had registered a landslide victory in assembly polls winning 213 of 294 seats in the West Bengal assembly. The BJP won 77 seats.

( With inputs from ANI )