Kolkata: Sakharav Sarkar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the bypoll for Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, had been declared elected by a massive margin of 75,816 votes on Friday.
While Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes, Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP)’s Golam Nabi Azad came in the second position securing 54,098 votes.
Congress’ Abdullahil Kafi was in the third position securing 6,168 votes, followed by Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ Rabiul Alam Chowdhury in the fourth position securing 3,847 votes.
CPI-M’s Md. Sayeed finished in the fifth position securing just 3,797 votes, while Democratic Trinamool Congress’ Safiuzzaman Sheikh came in the sixth position securing 2,044 votes.
While the victory of the BJP candidate was to an extent expected from Rejinagar, political observers feel that what is spectacular in the results is the large victory margin, considering that more than 65 per cent of the voters in Rejinagar are in the minority community.
However, the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had his own explanations behind the huge victory margin of the BJP from Rejinagar.
According to the Chief Minister, the larger number of women voters from the minority community in Rejinagar, who were immensely benefited from the Annapurna Yojana scheme this time had voted in favour of the BJP along with their family members.
“The Rejinagar bypoll results proved that the minority voters in West Bengal, especially the Bengali-speaking Muslims will no longer be misled by malicious Opposition campaigns accusing BJP of being a communal force.
In the Assembly elections earlier this year, AJUP’s Humayun Kabir got elected from Nandigram by a huge margin of 58,876 votes securing 51.62 per cent of the total votes polled then. Statistically, the BJP in the Rejinagar bypolls had witnessed more than 100 per cent positive swing in its favour.
Earlier this year, Kabir got elected simultaneously from Naoda Assembly constituency, also in Murshidabad district. Later, he decided to retain Naoda, thus necessitating bypolls at Rejinagar.
With the victory from Rejinagar, BJP’s tally in the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly had now increased to 209.
(IANS)
