Kolkata (West Bengal) : Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that the central government hatched conspiracies to remove TMC from power since the start of the elections.
Banerjee’s remarks came a short while before the election commission announced her massive victory in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.
“Since the elections started in West Bengal, central government hatched conspiracies to remove us (from power). I was hurt in my feet so that I don’t contest the polls. I am grateful to the public for voting for us and to the Election Commission of India for conducting polls within six months,” said the TMC supremo while greeting her supporters outside her residence in Kolkata.
Banerjee also said that nearly 46 per cent of non-Bengalis in Bhabanipur voted for her. “Around 46 per cent of people here (in Bhabanipur) are non-Bengalis. They all have voted for me. People of West Bengal are watching Bhabanipur, which has inspired me,” she said.
She further claimed that she had won the election by a margin of 58,832 votes and registered the victory in every ward of the constituency.
In the Bhabanipur Assembly bypoll, Banerjee marked a resounding victory as she recorded a margin of over 58,000 votes against her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The victory reinstated Banerjee as a member of the state Legislative Assembly allowing her to continue as West Bengal chief minister.
As per the Election Commission of India, the chief minister secured 85,263 votes in the by-polls easily surpassing BJP’s Tibrewal got 26,428 votes.
Notably, the TMC chief had lost to BJP’s 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, paving the way for Banerjee to contest the bypoll and retain her chief ministerial post.