Bengal bypoll: Blow to TMC, Congress wrests Muslim-dominated bastion

Biswas now becomes the only Congress MLA in the Assembly.

Both Mamata Banerjee and nephew Abhishek had campaigned in Sagardighi. TMC sources admitted they were worried about the minority vote having shifted to the Congress-CPI(M) alliance because almost 63% of Sagardighi population is Muslim. Tribals constitute another 10%-plus of the votes.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, the seat had been won by the TMC’s Subrata Saha by more than 50% of the votes and a huge margin of 50,000-plus votes. Its vote share as per Thursday’s results was down to 39%.

In 2011, Saha had been the only TMC winner from Murshidabad district, long a bastion of the Congress and specifically the party’s West Bengal chief, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. He had also won the seat in 2016 and 2021. After his third win in 2021, Saha had been made minister of state.

He died of a heart attack in December 2022, necessitating the by-election.

The Congress’s win is also significant as in 2021, it had finished third in Sagardighi.

As the CPI(M) and Congress celebrated the boost to them before the panchayat elections, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee blamed the “immoral alliance between the Congress, Left and BJP” for the party’s Sagardighi loss.

Apart from the minority vote, the TMC might be worried about women – another significant support base for the party – moving away, despite the many women-friendly schemes of its governments. Almost 60% of those who cast their votes were women this time.

Acknowledging the setback, a senior TMC leader said: “In 2021, almost 90% of the minority vote had come to us. We expected our votes to decrease but did not expect we would lose… We have to think from scratch.”

The leader added: “We are realising that the school jobs scam and the panchayat-level scams made an impact on voters, obviously across sectors.”

Accusing the BJP of “transferring its votes to the Congress”, Mamata said: “There was an immoral alliance… Thankfully, it is now out in the open after this election.”

The Chief Minister stressed that the result will have no bearing on the 2024 polls, and that the TMC “will do an alliance with the people” and “fight against the BJP alone”. “Those who want to defeat the BJP, they will vote for us, and those who vote for the Congress and CPI(M), they will actually vote for the BJP. It is clear after this bypoll.”

Adhir Chowdhury, who steered the party’s campaign in the Sagardighi seat in his bastion, said the TMC had defeated the Congress earlier by “torturing people with the help of police”. “As I said earlier, the Congress is not going to lose and today it has been proven.”

He also said that the Muslims had turned away from the TMC as the party had “betrayed” them. “The Muslims of Bengal know that the TMC acts as an agent of the BJP. Muslims can be cheated once but not always. Muslims will kick Didi out of Bengal.”

Congress winning candidate Byron Biswas said, “Our leader Adhir Chowdhury fought from the front, and the CPI(M) gave its 100 per cent.”

He added: “The TMC cannot buy me. I was the Congress and will always be under the Congress roof.”

Welcoming the result, CPI(M) state secretary Md Selim said: “We not only thank the voters of Sagardighi but also those who fought against communal politics and corruption and hooliganism. The ruling TMC’s hooligans were ready to loot votes, but the people resisted them.”