KOLKATA: Aided by the withdrawal of BJP's candidate at the last moment, the Trinamool Congress today managed to retain the Howrah Lok sabha seat with a comfortable margin.
BJP
today also claimed that its decision not to field candidate had helped Trinamool
Congress retain the Howrah Lok Sabha seat, but said the drop in the winning
margin was a "warning to TMC".
"It is known to everyone
that our decision not to contest the Howrah parliamentary by-election, which
was our party decision, has helped Trinamool Congress win and retain the
seat," BJP's state president Rahul Sinha told PTI.
He claimed that there was a
"substantial drop in the winning margin" of the Trinamool Congress
"which should be a warning for the party".
The BJP had decided at the fag
end of the poll process, not to field candidate following instruction from the
party's national president,Rajnath Singh.
Had the BJP contested the
bye-election, Congress would have slid to fourth position, Sinha added.
Dispelling the negativity surrounding the
Mamata Banerjee-government post Saradha scam, TMC candidate and former
international footballer Prasun Banerjee defeated his nearest CPI-M rival
Sridip Bhattacharjee by a margin of over
27,000 votes.
While TMC and CPI-M grabbed 4,26,273 and
3,99,258 votes respectively, the Congress candidate became a distant third
securing 96,727 votes.In 2009, TMC had an alliance with the Congress and won
the seat by a margin of more than 37,000 votes.
However, TMC-Congress had a lead of over
1,80,000 votes in 2011 assembly election in the seven seats that comes under
Howrah Lok Sabha constituency. A comparison with political's party's vote share
shows it was the absence of BJP that determined today's election result in
favour of TMC.
While TMC got 44.62% votes, CPI-M secured
41.70%. It should be noted that BJP had secured about 4-5% votes in 2009 Lok
Sabha and 2011 assembly elctions in the area respectively. As it is believed
that BJP's votes are more inclined to go to TMC than the Left in absence of the
party, analysts poitned out, BJP's absence favoured TMC.
Left and Congress, however, were quick to
accuse TMC of having an "understanding" with BJP ahead of 2014
general election. "The Howrah Lok Sabha seat was BJP's gift to TMC,"
said senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed.
BJP, which had secured over 50,000 votes in
2011 in the area withdrew its candidate at the last moment, despite announcing
its candidate earlier.
But this time it was always a close battle,
given that TMC was contesting on its own and opposition made the Saradha scam
and TMC's alleged assoiciation with such companies a major campaign issue.
The by-election was necessitated following
the death of Trinamool Congress MP Ambika Banerjee.
Reacting to the poll result West Bengal chief
minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said, "This time we have fought
Parliamentary by-election at Howrah all alone. A new era is born. Our candidate
Prasun Banerjee, an Arjun awardee, has won the election today."
