Bengal Bypoll
BJP turncoat Babul Supriyo's winning margin as TMC candidate in Ballygunge shrinks, CPI-M closes in
Kolkata/IBNS: Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Babul Supriyo, a former Union Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the Centre, won under the banner of Mamata Banerjee but his winning margin as compared to his predecessor late Subrata Mukherjee, shrank significantly in the byelection held in West Bengal's Ballygunge assembly seat.
Supriyo, who was once a strong critic of the TMC, is however comfortably ahead of his nearest rival CPI-M's Saira Shah Halim by over 17,000 votes at the end of 18th round.
Very interestingly, the TMC is trailing in a few wards of the constituency which has a sizable minority population.
Justifying the narrower margin of the win in TMC bastion Kolkata, Supriyo said, "A campaign was held against me. Lies can influence people to some extent and that has happened."
Senior TMC leader Debasish Kumar said, "We will analyse the reason behind the trails in a few wards. I am sure we will recover in the next election."
The BJP, which is the only legitimate opposition party in the state assembly, has been pushed to the fight for the third spot by CPI-M's Saira Shah Halim, who is behind Supriyo.
Reacting to the TMC's stumble, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said, "The CPI-M has benefitted because a section of Muslim voters have moved away from the TMC. More Muslim votes will shift in the future."
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